Lessons learned from my first photo exhibition

As I mentioned last time, this month a local cafe is hosting my first photo exhibition, on the painted caves of Laas Geel. It's running until the end of January if you happen to pass through Madrid this month. :-)

I'd never done a solo photo exhibition before and I learned a fair amount. The night went well and I even sold a photo, but things could have gone better.

First off, the timing was bad. In early January people are often still on holiday or out of town, and most people are feeling poor after holiday spending. Not a good time to have a show. I knew this ahead of time, of course, but with my travel schedule there wasn't really any choice.

Secondly, I could have done more to promote it. I told my writers group, distributed fliers, announced it here and on my social media sites, and put an announcement on Couchsurfing. That last idea was a good one because I got to meet some interesting Couchsurfers living in Madrid! Still, I could have sent out more invites and distributed more fliers.

Lastly, the frames were those simple glass plates with clips. While they're the cheapest option and actually look pretty good, they make the photos look smaller. I should have gone with more substantial frames. The photos could probably have been a size bigger too.

Throughout the night several people asked me if I was going to make a presentation. They seemed to have expected one. Perhaps I should have done one. I'm not sure if I should have given it in Spanish or English, though. About half the crowd were native English speakers, and in a couple of cases couldn't have followed a Spanish presentation. Vice versa for the rest of the crowd. The slide show I had running all night got a lot of attention, though, and became a focus of conversation with several people.

All in all, I was happy with the evening's attendance and have learned a lot about how to do my next event.

Thanks to my wife Almudena for taking the pictures of the event! She only had the instamatic that night so I'm looking a bit scary. Another thing to remember for next time!