Just as I was sitting down to write the rough draft of this post I received an invitation to Slideluck Potshow NYC featuring the work of:
…. no, my name was not listed.
Dissapointment. It’s the least significant of my three efforts this month, but I was proud of my entry and felt there was reason to hope. I was also looking forward to inviting my 20 something nieces to the screening so they could see how cool their late 50 something uncle is. That will have to wait another year. Until then, on to the next thing. I am too early in the game to treat this as a major setback that should cause me to question the way I am steering the ship, but damn, I’d like to be admitted to one of these things.
Next up, NYC portfolio review this coming Monday, so I know what the content of my next post will be. The in person reviews and responses to my work have been the needed encouragement so far. I have been through enough of them and in enough circumstances that I know when the reviewer is being kind and when they actually think your work is interesting. My reviews tend to shade towards the later kind these days. Not neccessarily over the moon excited about the work but confirming to me that I should be submitting to the more ambitious local and national opportunities. In part, it is a process of getting the photography world familiar with your work, or so I have been told. The folks that jury these opportunities tend to be on a circut of reviewers so if you enter consistently, some will get familiar with your work and be more enthusiastic about it next time, or remember it for some other purpose down the road.
I have been re-reading for the third or fourth time, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I am reading it alongside Emanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Yes, I am a bundle of laughs at diner parties. ZAMM is a wonderful book that I highly recommend, and no, it is not neccessary to suffer through CPR to grock ZAMM. As I make my way through ZAMM, I remember that it and it’s author hold the all time record for the number of times a book, which was destined to become a best seller and enter into the pantheon of highly esteemed cultural works, was rejected prior to publishing, 121. Ok, I am not even close to 121 submissions. I think it is more like 7. My work and the quality of my submissions has evolved over the last year and a half as well. Hell, the last six months have seen a big evolution in what I am doing. I have a long way to go before I need to question my direction.
I also take note of the fact that it took Robert M. Pirsig 4 years to write the book during which time he would awake at 2 AM, write until 6 AM, and then go to his day job writing technology manuals. I’ve got the work ethic going. Even on vacation I have been making photographs daily. I am pretty determined too. I am expecting one day to be able to relate a success story or two. In the meantime, I am enjoying the journey. It’s an interesting trek. As for my submissions? They can not choose them all they want, I’ll make more…
Slideluck Potshow Barcelona. Foto de proyección de trabajo As Skin de Héctor Freijanes #slideluckpotshow #ubiquography #photooftheday #iphonesia #iphonegraphy #igers #webstagram #statigram #bcn (Tomada con Instagram)
One Is Not Like The Other is being shown at Slideluck Potshow Dublin tomorrow. Hop along if you can to see the work of 20 other artists, and see my face flash seven times with a catchy tune and a few words.
