Jenna Banat @ Photofusion Gallery

1. Could you tell me about the background of the exhibition and how the process came about? 

 Our Membership Scheme is at the core of our organisation at Photofusion. We have at present around 500 members, all of which are either practicing or professional working artists. They range from students to professional working photographers, and in celebration of the broad and varied talent within our membership scheme, we have organised annual members' photography exhibitions. 

"Photofusion Salon 2012" was our fourth year of organising an exhibition for the Members of Photofusion. In the past, around 15 artists were selected to exhibit a recent body of work in the gallery, with a further 25 on an AV showreel. However, due to the growing popularity of the event, we wanted to be able to showcase a much larger selection of our Members' work. Therefore, we decided to give the whole exhibition a new and improved make over, by making it a Salon show. This enabled us to select over 120 artists to exhibit on the walls of the gallery, and then another 41 on a showreel.

2. Could you please describe the selection and display process? (referring to framing, lighting, display and mount)

Members were invited to submit a body of up to 10 images, a statement and a bio from a project that was completed in the last year. The Photofusion Gallery Committee then went through the submissions and selected the successful applicants to be in the show. One image was selected from each successful submission. Due to the extremely high standard of work that we received, we ended up letting through 160 prints to go on the gallery walls, and then a further 41 which went on an AV showreel.

The successful applicants chosen to exhibit on the gallery walls were then given a maximum print allowance of 1m wide, and were allowed to exhibit their work as they pleased - either framed, mounted or pinned/magnets. We did not want to set restrictions on this, as that would defeat the point of a Salon show. It was then at the curation stage that I had to take into account the colours of frames etc. so as not to have too many of the same hanging styles next to each other. The sizes of the prints also ended up varying in size from 30cm to 1m, which definitely made the task of curation more complicated.

In the end, the prints were presented as a mixture of hangings and frames/mounts and sizes, on all four walls of the gallery, covering them from floor to ceiling.

3. What were the aims and objectives of the show? How well have you achieved them?

The aim of this annual show is to offer our Members a platform on which they can showcase their latest body of work. A handout was available which had the website and email of each exhibitor, so that viewers could view the rest of their work. There was also a catalogue which accompanied the exhibition and contained short project statements for each image exhibited. 

Therefore, overall I think that the initial aim to showcase the talent of the Photofusion Membership scheme was successful, as was offering them a platform on which to present their work. For some, this show was one of their first, and so it offered them an insight into what goes in to putting together a group show - which from their point of view involved how they wanted their work to be presented within the gallery, getting it printed and framed, and writing their own biography/artist statement. For the other more experienced photographers, this show gave them the opportunity to showcase a more recent body of work, to gain more exposure, to network, and potentially make some sales/new clients.  Overall, this annual exhibition brought all our Members together, allowing them to network and gain professional exposure.

4. Was there anything you wish you had done differently?

After having gone through the stressful curation of this year's show with 160 prints, I now know to limit the number of prints for the gallery walls for next year. We were close to not being able to fit all of the prints in on the walls, therefore next year I will limit the number of successful applicants allowed through to approximately 120.

5. Could you please describe the curatorial process in 1 sentence/phrase?

The curatorial process was extremely challenging with a wide range of themes, aesthetics, framings/hangings to consider in quite a small gallery space, however, the outcome was an exciting and inspirational photography exhibition.