Today was the public opening of the photo08 - Switzerlands largest photo exhibition. Once again I am happy to be among the selected photographers. The interesting thing about this show is the level playing field for everybody participating. One huge hangar type of space and a 1 by 4 meter styrofoam cube to show your work on. Doesn’t matter if your a hot shot or first semester student, you get the same 4 square meters. It all results in a big melting pot of contemporary photography.
In it’s 4th year the show is really picking up a momentum and is starting to get a lot of press as in PERSÖNLICH, Switzerland’s foremost magazine for the advertising community. What made my day last night at the VIP opening, was seeing two of my images as the lead for their coverage on the show!
I had a fairly hard time selcting the images to show. After all 4 square meters isn’t that much space. As opposed to last year, where I showed 17 smaller images I opted for a few larger prints this year. Below is my cube:
One of the greatest things about photo08 however, are the people you get meet. Today I had the pleasure of being introduced to a representative from one of the larger advertising agencies here, followed by a very friendly couple who knew me through the internet and of course all the other photographers on site. First and foremost my good friend Beat Eisele, who has joined the gang of exhibitors this year! Beat has a brand new website up - chek it out here. But all the other guys as well, there’s hardly any envy among the fellow photogs there. Folks just pop up beside your cube and usually very friendly and fruitful conversations follow. Photography 2.0 at it’s best!
Photo08 will run until Tuesday Dec. 30, so if you’re in town, make sure to pop in!
Posted by nicolas_henri on December 27th, 2008 :: Filed under
Exhibition,
PhotographyTags ::
Exhibition,
largest photo exhibition,
photo08,
Zürich
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I was recently approached by FOTOGEN Model Agency in Zurich to shoot some tests for their new faces. Tests(?) some of you may ask? A test shooting is basically a model (with or without agency representation) asking you to shoot some material with her in order to build her book. Sometimes photographers get paid to do this, sometimes not… actually, the latter most of the time - which brings me to the point: There’s been a lively discussion about the issue of working for free these last few days… The photographic blog sphere has been talking about little else. It all started with The Strobist (aka David Hobby), suggesting free work can be a good thing in these economically difficult times. Following up was Seattle shooter Chase Jarvis, actually looking for free work! While John Harrington and Vincent Laforet more or less raise their voices against Hobby’s idea, saying it is misleading most readers. (Follow the links to read in detail what they have to say about all of this…)
Personally I’m rather torn on the issue. I have worked many jobs for free (or close to nothing) in order to build my own book, which is David Hobby’s point. The idea is that you get to shoot the stuff you are interested in, but would never get hired to do so due to the lack of such work in your portfolio. Break the viscious cycle if you will… And then in return get paid to shoot the same type of stuff again (paid by some other client, because they see it in your book). Sounds good and well… and yes you can build your book that way and yes you get your name out there. Problem is: At some point you need to find a client who is light headed enough to pay you, when he could have had the job for free, had he knocked a little earlier or simply went to another guy who followed The Strobist’s mantra…
More after the jump…
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Posted by nicolas_henri on December 8th, 2008 :: Filed under
Artist Technique,
Making Of,
On Location,
Photography,
UncategorizedTags ::
model agency,
strobist,
work for free
