I'm happy to be a part of the Art Fair Insiders community. Although I have visited the site many times over the past few years while researching tents and fairs and such, I only got my feet wet last year with a few art fairs at the end of the season. As for this year, I missed some early deadlines due to long hours at my day job, but have now managed to schedule at least three for the next two months and have applied to three for the month of September. My main concern with the submissions has been my booth shot, being that it is from a show I did last year and not as representative of the equipment and display that I should have this year....but I won't have good photos until my first show this year in June. I'm guessing one's booth is something that must be built over time, but I'm looking forward to learning about what concerns others may have in this business and how they handle them, too. Thanks for welcoming and including me!
As for my work, I am a photographer who continues to shoot medium format film, as well as digital. I do all of my own darkroom printing and currently, I do all of my own giclee prints, as well. I have considered printing on metal or having prints mounted on plexi-glass as some of the other photographers have done to reduce the time spent to mat and frame, but I still like a framed piece and I worry that the metal prints may just be a fad, but who knows. As with any art, there's always new things happening in the market and always decisions to be made.
As a photographer, one of the decisions I have to make is where to photograph and trips are a must! While I probably did more traveling in the past when I didn't have the photography equipment available to me that I have now, I still hope to fit in a couple of short trips this year. One such trip that I'm making at the end of the month is to Nova Scotia, Canada and I might try to squeeze in an additional trip to Colorado, as well. Being that I've lived in four different states across the country and have traveled extensively, one of the things I have considered is participating in art fairs a little farther from home than what I'm currently planning for this year. Any insight from those who do travel across country for fairs, therefore, will be greatly appreciated! Feel free to share and I look forward to contributing what I can!
Replies
Welcome, Jeanie. All Larry's suggestions are seconded by me. Please look at booth images that you'll find in the Booth Examples discussion area for more ideas.
Anyone who loves traveling can become addicted to this life. Being on the road is my favorite part of the business. What show do you have coming up?
If you've applied on ZAPP of JAS, you can change images up until the deadline. On ZAPP, you have to contact the shows and ask them to set your application to incomplete, make the changes and then resubmit. But you shouldn't do that unless you already have the new booth image in your portfolio.
Larry Berman
Based on what you're saying, I would never use your old booth picture again. Set up your booth with the new display and take a new booth picture before your next application is due. If you don't have enough framed work to fill the display in a symmetrical pleasing way, hang empty frames and I'll help you add pictures to the frames afterwards.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Hi Jeanie and welcome,
It's too easy to critique your booth, much can be improved. The best suggestion I can give right now is for you to figure out how to neatly hang fabric behind your grid walls so you can't see through them. Hang the grid walls along the perimeter of your display and not in the middle. Hang the work symmetrically on the walls so it looks neater. Try to keep your framed sizes uniform.
Eventually, if you plan on continuing to do art shows, you're going to need professional looking walls inside your canopy to hang your photographs on.
Read some of the information on displays and display pictures on my web site:
http://bermangraphics.com/artshows/booth-slide.htm
Specifically look at my page of tips on taking your own booth picture:
http://bermangraphics.com/artshows/photograph-booth.htm
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100