tired eyes/happy ears

Mostly what you do at Review Santa Fe is look at other photographer's pictures (and give them feedback) and listen intently while they and the reviewers give you feedback on your own pictures.

There are a lot of pictures here in Santa Fe this weekend. My eyes are getting bloodshot. But I'm seeing some really nice work.

The best part of today, though, has been the positive response I've received from the three reviewers I saw. (There are 40; the matches between photographer and reviewer are made through the process of a lottery. We photographers ranked our picks for review sessions. I got appointments with 9 of my top 12, for example.)

I schlepped three portfolios with me: the Streetcar Series, Uganda and The Sea Series. I show whichever work best fits the reviewer and whatever addresses that which I hope to gain from the meeting.

My reviews with The New York Times and Newsweek were fantastic. It's not that you'll be seeing my byline on the pages of either publication anytime soon. It's that a good introduction has been made, and they know about my work now. In both cases, they also really liked it (Sally Field-ish I am this afternoon!) and want to be kept abreast of my projects.

Both involved really thoughtful, productive, informative and positive conversations.

I'm even going to be recommended as a NYT Kansas City shooter. So... if anything newsworthy happens in KC, something which the Times wants to cover, I'm their woman!

Here are some photos of people looking at work - the first is of one of two rooms where the review sessions take place, the next is a reviewer and photographer during a session and the last one shows participants looking at each other's work.






Tonight the community of Santa Fe is invited to view our photographs at an open portfolio viewing event. It's been well publicized locally and was even mentioned in Art in America, so hopefully we'll have lots of interested collectors and art lovers on hand for the 2 1/2 hour browsing session.

Tomorrow is round two of photo review speed dating. I have six appointments scheduled.