revjim.net

The exhibit is tomorrow. I'm not sure how many of you are planning on coming. If you are, I'm very grateful for your support. On one hand, I want to be really excited about this. But, on the other hand I'm a bit reserved.

It is, after all, an opportunity to show my work to people who might not otherwise ever have a chance to see it and that's awesome for me. Any photographer who does anything but keep his images to himself obviously has some ego staked in those images and I am no exception. I want my work to be viewed. I want my worked to be liked. I want my work to mean something. A photograph without a viewer is without purpose.

However, most of the parameters of the event are unknown to me. The space being used is not specifically for exhibiting work. It is, in fact, a restaurant. An actually gallery would be ideal. A coffee house or wine bar would be quite acceptable, and maybe even preferred when looking for new people who don't normally seek out art. But I'm not sure what to think of a restaurant. A space is being designated for the exhibit and people are welcome to view the work without making a purchase from the restaurant. These are good things. But outside of that, it's unknown to me. I guess I've learned that too much anticipation of an unknown thing almost always leads to disappointment.

So I'm weary.

Part of me wants everyone I've ever known to show up and have it be a huge success. The other part of me wishes I never agreed to do it in the first place. The fighting between them has left me quietly moving forward without making too much of a commotion and silently hoping that everyone and no one shows up.

There's another part of me that knows that if I start seriously and specifically inviting people, and then very few people show up, it'll hurt a lot more than if I sit there all alone having not invited anyone. So, I guess I'm just being cautious.

Sometimes I'm too cautious. I'm always the one stirring other people up but, believe it or not, sometimes I need someone to jump in and mix me around a bit. That's a topic for another time.