Okay kids, a short drool this week. (Well, not many words, lots
of snaps) Been way too busy printing prints and getting all the
ancillary shit produced and lined up for this meeting I have in
Montreal. So I figured I might as well blog about it.

Read on………

PORTFOLIO PREP AND ETC.

Last Monday I was invited by the swell folks at Le Mois de la Photo
(Montreal’s big, every-two-years foto fest) to go there to meet a
whole passel of international foto curators, show them my work.
I was scheduled to see them this coming Saturday.

How could I say “No”?

One of the things I wanted to show was the first three years of USER.
Problem is, even though the work is pretty much scanned and printed,
it’s never been organized into one cohesive, all-prints-the-same-size,
easy-to-handle portfolio.

That gave me exactly 5 days to get back into my USER archive, pull
the files I wanted to show (10 from each of the three years I’ve been
shooting it), rework those files and produce 30 exhibition quality
16×20 inch prints.

I set aside 5 hours every morning this week to get it done. So, needless
to say, I’ve been a little bit obsessed with the process.

Here’s some of the printing and prep I went thru, just to show you the
glamorous (read: occasionally grinding) life of the freelance photographer.

Small test prints and a 16×20 rolling out of the printer

The kitchen table became production central

Substandard prints were destroyed

There it is, about 30 hours and $400 (including the fancy archival box) later.

Side view

Some of the pre-collated hype I’m gonna hand out, reviews in English, Dutch and Japanese

Promo to give to curators

THE REVIEW

Just in the door from Montreal. Thought I’d pound this short
report out now, before I turn on the boob toob and watch some
Premier League Football, you know….relax.

So, here’s some snaps from the whirlwind trip and, down there
a little bit, a few impressions and a result…….

Towards Montreal, early Saturday Morning

Lost in Montreal

The venue and some reviewing action

The reviewing process is a bit weird. You’ve got a room
full of foto/artists sitting at tables and the reviewers kind
of shuffle from one to the next. There were more reviewers
than there was time, so who got to see your work was a bit
of a crap shoot. Some of the reviewers took a lot of time,
some gave work a cursory glance. Fair enough, if you’re
not interested in something, if it doesn’t tickle your fancy,
I don’t think you should pretend.

I wish that I had more time to circulate myself, see what
other wares were on offer. I did get to finally meet Kate
Hutcheson, who’s blog I follow. Always nice to put a face
to a name.

The review was interesting for me. I met folks from Chicago,
Houston, Montreal (of course), The U.K., France, Finland and
Austria. They gave me some informed feedback and I got a
few nibbles, a couple of expressions of interest (publications
and exhibitions) and I even managed to sell some work to The
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Texas).

Then I came home…….

Leaving Montreal, late Saturday afternoon

FOUHSE MAKES THE SOCIETY PAGE!

The big Médecins Sans Frontiéres fund raiser at Gallery La Petite Mort
was a huge success. There was a steady stream of folks thu to see and
buy the work. And a very democratic and low cost approach it was, too.
All the fotos were priced at only $100. Art collecting made affordable
and over $4000 was raised to help Doctors Without Borders in their
fine work.

MAGENTA

The Magenta Foundation, MaryAnn Camilleri’s great Canadian foto and
art publishing enterprise has launched Magenta Magazine Online.

Hop on over there and check it out.