PHOTOGRAPHY

10 Lessons I Learned from My First Photo Exhibition

A Recap of “No Destination”

Year-end is a perfect time to reflect on the past twelve months and to examine what you have learned, accomplished, or witnessed. When I think back to January, I recall the excitement of having just landed my first photo exhibition, slated for December, giving me eleven months to prepare.

Perhaps a year is too long of a deadline to set for oneself, because it is at the same time seemingly so near and so far away, that it can be easy to procrastinate. But here I am, nearing the other side of a successful month-long photography exhibition, with two more to go in early 2024. I feel grateful to have learned so much from this process, and I hope that some of the lessons learned can be of use to the photography community on Medium. And with that, here are my biggest takeaways from “No Destination.”

Curation

Trust your gut

While I find it incredibly helpful to have a curator involved who can judge the works from a detached emotional state, I also think it’s important to trust your own intuition. My Dad was my chief influence during the editing/curation process, and there were several images that he didn’t believe were very strong that I ended up including at the last minute, which ended up being sold [to people I had never met] on opening night.

(That’s another beauty of the exhibition — when people you’ve never even met have a chance to view and support your work, as their feedback is unaffected by a sense of obligation due to an existing relationship with you).

The spectrum of showing vs selling

I’ve found that there is an irony that some of what I think of as my best photos are somehow less sellable than the ones that I view as more basic. Especially when it comes to portraiture — you could have an emotional, masterful image of a subject, but it often isn’t something that people want to purchase and display at home.

What I noticed over this past month, is that more of my landscape photos have sold than the portraits. And so I think there is a balance that one needs to explore, between showing your “best” work, vs the work that will more likely sell, and I think this balance depends on what the artist’s goals are for a given exhibition. I’m still happy I displayed the ones that haven’t sold, as I felt some of them were necessary to include, despite a smaller chance of selling them.

Venue

The venue sets the tone for the exhibit

This truly is where you “set the stage.” If you want to do something very low-key, perhaps target a local coffee shop where you can display your work without the attention and buzz of an opening reception. As I don’t feel ready to approach actual galleries yet, I went with a local martini bar that is a staple in the art community of my hometown. They traditionally open up a new exhibition on the first Friday of every month, and so that felt like the right atmosphere for what I wanted to do. The bar is rather dimly lit, so it doesn’t have the best lighting per se, but it was the right venue to put on an unpretentious show, where I could share my work collected from three-plus years of travel with close friends and family, without the pressure of being at a renowned gallery.

Promotion

Promote the opening night on socials, and you’ll be surprised by who turns up

I was floored when several people from past chapters of life showed up unannounced to the opening. People from my teenage years, people from my corporate years, people from out of state, people I had only met that very week. It was really special to see the venue fill up with people who came out on a Friday night to see and support my work.

I was also really glad I took my friend’s advice to order a special run of unframed 5x7 prints to sell to people who came out on the opening night. I had several friends and acquaintances stock up on the small prints, which accumulated into a few hundred dollars in sales via cash, or the QR code to my Venmo that I had displayed around the venue.

Presentation

Savor the Process of Presentation

Once you get out of the vicious cycle of going back and forth in your head over the curation process, and finally order your prints — it’s somewhat cathartic when they arrive and you get to see how they’ve turned out on photo paper.

Because photography to me is the most fulfilling when you’re out of your head, out of your computer/archive, and are either in the field capturing images, or are in your workspace working with a tangible creation— the final prints, the mats, the frames, the glass. There’s something so meditative about presenting works in the physical space (darkroom included) that rejuvenates me in a way that editing or culling in front of a screen does not.

Selling Prints

Passive income via sales: Merch or Fine Art?

Preparing for the exhibition helped me discover a better way to sell my work online. When I was in India a year ago, I had set up an online store on my website where people could order drop-ship prints and canvases, with the idea that I could make passive income via print sales while I traveled. I had just picked a publisher that other photographers had recommended without being able to see the end result.

Through the process of preparing an exhibition and selecting a publisher, I realized that while my drop-ship setup was effort-free, the final product was more “merchandise” than it was “fine art photography,” when it came down to presentation. This is leading to some changes in how I will administer my online store in the new year, which I am still working through at the moment, but am thankful to this exhibition for helping me to discover this key difference.

General

Let go of self-doubt

Each work, or each photograph is part of a journey to the next one, just as each exhibition is a bridge to each consecutive showing. This first one is an important step in being able to do your second, third, etc, with much more ability and efficiency. If you end up not enjoying this moment due to stress, or give up entirely, you’ll never know what moments or opportunities you’re surrendering down the line.

It’s worth it for the engagement alone

Photography, especially travel photography, can be a lonely endeavor. I spent a few years away from home to acquire the images that ended up in this show. And while I met so many people on my travels, I wasn’t able to be present at home, and remained unconnected in my local art scene. Having an exhibition like this one allowed me to reconnect with my support system and community at home, as well as introduce me to other art lovers, venues, and opportunities that were up until now hidden from me.

Lean on friends

I benefited so much from the help of friends — from creation of the posters, to the “table tents” with my QR code, as well as even hanging the photographs with me. Measuring and leveling, and just overall “handiwork” is not one of my strengths, and so it was a blessing to have the help of friends in hanging the show. I also asked a friend to manage the merch table during the opening so I could just focus on welcoming and talking to people, and not have to conduct transactions, which was critical to having a stress-free opening.

Don’t take things too seriously

I think this applies to everything in life. The key is to enjoy the process. If at any point you’re not having fun doing what you’re doing, it's time to question why you’re doing it.

Preparing for this show allowed me to dig into my past work, bringing back memories from prior journeys, and prior times of life. I then got to spend quality time with my dad, cutting mats and preparing to present the selection we curated together. Lastly, it resulted in a heartwarming opening reception, and all of the above combined to encourage me to keep working at becoming a better photographer and shooting for better and bigger exhibitions.

Thanks for being a part of the journey.