The Curator's Eye aims to explore and comprehend the thinking mechanisms which are specific to each person. The reason why I have asked 5 people to respond to my questions is that I aimed to get an more in depth analisys of the subject matter. I have spoken to Lauren Wright, curator at the Turner Contemporary about the Rosa Barba - Subject to constant change and Karen Shepherdson, who has curated an exhibition containing her own work, which is on display in the Burton Gallery, in Broadstairs. They represent the Thanet area and I am very grateful that they have agreed to help me with the project.
Regarding the London area, I managed to get in contact with three practitioners who were kind enough to give me an hour of their time in order to discuss the exhibitions they have curated. These people are as follows: Olivia Post, manager at the Chris Beetles Gallery, to whom I spoke about Herbert Ponting's Antarctic Expedition.
The next person, Jenna Banat, curator at the PhotoFusion Gallery responded to my questions via email and she talked about the Annual Members Photography Show which took place in 2012. The last practitioner who agreed to take part in this project was James Smith. He curated an exhibition containing his own work, at the Photofusion Gallery. I was quite lucky to get into contact with him thanks to Jenna Banat, who kindly provided me with his email address. His interview was the most interesting because it took place via skype. Never in my life had I done a skype interview, especially with someone I never spoken to or met before. I am glad to day it went just fine, he gave some excellent answers and helped me a lot with the project.
To be honest, if it hadn't been for these 5 amazing people who accepted my invitation to this project, I wouldn't have succeeded in completing it. This Mixed Media project was the kind of body of work which required an increased amount of interaction with other people and persuading them to provide me with the information I was after. Getting in touch with them was far from easy. There were days when I sent about 50-60 emails to galleries and I wouldn't get any responses at all. Then I also had better days when I received 1-2 positive answers. The thing about communicating via email is that one has to be sure that the other person won't drop out in the last minute. From the moment someone says yes to something to the point in which you actually meet with the person and get the work done, it's a very long way to go.
All the interviews, apart from the one Jenna Banat offered, which was via email, were recorded. I met with Lauren, Karen and Olivia in person and I met James via Skype. It has been a pleasure talking to them about the art of displaying art and I am eternally grateful for their help and support.
I would do it all over again if I could simply because photography has proven once more, that the best gift it has to offer me is meeting brilliant people who share the same passion as I do. It was worth it, I enjoyed working on this project and I do hope the final outcome reflects that.
I have just begun my conversation with the art of exhibitions and by the looks of it, it's going to be a wonderful dialogue with an ending which is yet to be known.
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