It's Out of My Hands

So my first ever photography exhibit is up at Rust Belt Books for the month of July. The process of choosing photos, having prints made, and hanging the show has been mildly but unmistakably unpleasant, but now it's up and it's really out of my hands. That feels surprisingly nice. I think the biggest lesson learned has been how to look at photos in a new light. Normally when I take a shot I'm proud of, I throw it on FaceBook and maybe add a fun comment. That's it. I'm not thinking about context or theme or the experience of walking through a space and taking in art, or which images lend themselves to prints vs. a digital frame. These were all considerations for the show, and frankly I didn't deal with all of them successfully. Live and learn! Besides, like I said, it's really out of my hands now.

Now the big challenge is staying the hell away. I want to hover, to see people looking, to see their reaction. But I know myself well enough to know that a negative reaction, or worse, indifference, would crush me, and besides, who wants a creepy guy watching them when they shop for used books? Kristi told me there were a couple of people who really spent a lot of time looking at every image, and one even commented to her, which made me very happy (though she very distinctly didn't tell me exactly what he said). I think that more than anything else, a reaction - any reaction - gave me the sense of calm necessary to just let go for a while. It's really out of my hands.