Participating in the Boulder Downtown Arts Festival this weekend was start of my efforts to market the catalog of images I have been working on for the past ten years. After spending most of the summer, planning and preparing for the show, the big day finally arrived. By the time Katherine and Aiden showed up at the corner of Pearl and 15th, I was already sweaty, bloody and frustrated. With their help and support my work went up in the booth and we were open for business.
While a few folks knew my images were taken with Polaroid film, most people wanted an explanation of how I created the unique dreamy images. I loved talking to people, sharing the stories that went with each image, and listening to their comments of how they felt about the images.
Around noon the show director came by with a present for me- a blue ribbon. The award left me pretty dumbfounded. I was just happy to get all the pieces together for the show. I was hoping for a few sales but really the chance to get start to learn how to market and sell my work, was enough. By the day’s end I had sold three canvas prints including the largest one I had made for the show.
On Sunday I had a chance to take a walk through the show and check out the other vendors. The photography booths were amazing! Interesting work, beautifully printed, professionally displayed. What were these judges thinking? I felt really humbled and undeserving of the award that was hanging in my booth. The real reward was the attention that it attracted as people stopped by, talked about what they saw in my photographs and why they liked them. I sold a few more pieces and made many more friends.
Driving home I thought about the stories ball players tell when they play in the Super Bowl or World Series. It comes so fast that they feel like it will happen every year. Veterans tell them to savor the moment because it may not happen again their entire career. Good advice.
Please check out this web site to see samples of the work form my show.
Namaste,
David