Catching Up: New Website and Photo Exhibition
The month of March was crazy busy for me. So crazy that I wasn't able to really get any posts done. In fact, as much as I kept wanting to post and keep up, was exactly how often I got pulled away from being able to. March brought a lot of projects for me. So many that I just couldn't get a post out. Now that we are in a new month, projects have ended and I am moving forward with new work. One of the major projects for March, which came very fast at the end was the launching of the new site! Yes! I know finally right? It feels like yesterday I started JeffreyB. Photography, when really it was one year ago. Last April, 2011, I started JeffreyB. Photography as a website to host my personal work. Over the course of the year this transitioned into a site to host my business and a small collection of the long term projects I have been working on. The story of my site goes back to last Sunday. Sunday March 25. While attending a coffee hour for a friend running for State Rep, I got to talking with another friend of mine. Jim Chevalier. Jim is a smart cat who knows his stuff. I mean KNOWS his stuff. By stuff I mean web, "geekery" stuff as he calls it. He builds apps, sites, and can make things do things, on the web. Discussing with him the idea of getting my site together in a week and having it up by the following Friday, the opening of a exhibition I had been working on for 3 months, seemed like a novel idea. Boy did Jim pull me back down to earth, and fast. "You make great photos, concentrate on that and I will get you a site together by Friday. It is my goal." I told him I would email him tomorrow, on a Monday, and we would talk. Over the course of emailing, less than 50 electronic mail conversations, and a few hours of Jim's personal time a site was born. What makes this such worthy project to discuss was how Jim creatively made things, do things. You can check out his project page here, where he discusses how he made it happen.
I suggest taking a look at my Projects Page. I have been discussing At First Sight, A Social Documentary about Kris Wanat I wil be adding a few more projects in the coming months, but for now, I am content with showing what I have been working on for the last 2 years to 18 months back.
Halfway through March I was requested to do an engagement shoot for a friend and her fiance. I had a lot of fun shooting at the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke Ma. I have made done a few shoots there, both for the museum and for functions that have taken place there. Chris and Lisa were a fun couple that came in with a list of ideas and made for a great shoot.
Going back to the exhibition I had open last Friday. On Friday March 30th Landmark Illuminations opened at Open Square. One of the ways that I prefer to define what Landmark Illuminations was, besides a photography exhibition, is as follows: Landmark Illuminations is an exhibition of images that convey the fleeting, transitioning moment of the Holyoke Public Library. The exhibition was both display and auction of the images. I made available a certain number of prints, both framed and matted as well as a set of limited edition prints, just mated. The goal was to raise money for the Library's Capital Camping, a fundraiser to gather a certain dollar amount needed for the Library's construction and renovation. I spent roughly three months working with a committee to bring this exhibition to its goal successfully open it. On Friday night when the doors to the event space closed, we were surprised and delighted to find that just over half the exhibition had been purchased. 19 pieces sold and the dollar amount raised was just past $4000.00. As a means of social practice and social investment, the social practice being the making and displaying the photographs, the social investment being, all proceeds were donated to the Capital Campaign Fund. This was an ambitions project that consumed a lot of time through the month of March. A project that I was happy to create and work on. As a sub form of social practice, I had a lot of assistance from other local business, including The Muse Custom Framing, Sutter's Jewelry, Open Square, and the committee of members I had been working with. Their time, effort, and energy was both supportive and beneficial to seeing our goal become complete. A special thank you goes to Bob Gordon for donating his time to photograph the event to share with everyone that couldn't be there that night.
The next couple of weeks shall be fun. I have a bunch of in studio portrait sessions book and look forward to sharing them. I would like to close with an image that means a great deal to me. I came across this portrait of my grandmother while searching for a few other images. It dates back to 2008, before I had left for Boston. It is an image that captures he smile and her soul.
