Digital Photography

I was cleaning out my supposedly-weaving-related drawer of my desk just now, and came across a brag book I compiled the night before I went to the Symposium in March, 2006. Turns out I didn't make new friends, so I didn't show it to anybody but Trish, but it was an interesting exercise. It's just a postcard-size plastic folder with around 40 photos of my then-new pieces.

I was stuck by how dated the photos, or my work, look. The pieces aren't all that different from what my current "style" if you can call it that, but I see all kinds of other things I've done meanwhile, that my 2005 pieces appear so last-era. I'm happy to report that my photographic skill has improved a tad, too.

With a digital photography, videos and sound devices, and means like phones, email, blog and photo blogs, we're constantly showing and seeing each other's latest works, and because in most cases the communication is two- or more-ways, we can even solicit help, or laugh and commiserate together, almost instantly. So the more static material, like photos, brag books or even a static web site need to focus on other things; stable facts (contact info, data, history, archival material, etc.) on the one hand, and the tangible "goodie bag" aspect on the other.

With that in mind, I'm still not sure what I want to do with my static web site, but also have been considering having outrageously expensive business cards printed, too. Well, maybe not right away. I used to print out cards with care instructions using a photo of the piece the care instructions were going to be attached to. Then I started using my logo, and then my standard computer-print-out business card. Two big problems here: ink jet is not waterproof, and it fades in the Ozon-hole Nelson sun after about nine months. I'm aiming for a mixture of personal/handmade, and the professional look, and to that end, Taueret's suggestion of Moo.com mini cards might be what I'm looking for, but I wished they had business cards. Does anybody know of similar operations? (I got a 10-piece trial pack once, and did only 1 photo of my weaving. Shocking.)
Red Art Gallery has been asking me to develop a special, tiny carry bag for my cashmere pieces, and that's been on the back burner for a year now. Terrible.

The other development is, a few months after the two bigger exhibitions, Re:fine and Culturally Routed, closed, I received packages from the curators; each pack included a Thank You letter, a copy of the visitors' comments, catalog of the exhibition in once instance, and a CD Rom of professionally shot photos of the exhibition. The copyrights of these photos were not identified, but it's probably worth asking if I'm allowed to upload them with proper credit.

Times are changing. I'm glad I'm here now, but sometimes it's hard to keep up. Please share your thoughts.

PS, Qoop.com has 3.5 in*2 in cards, but you have to have the same photo/s on all 100 cards, unlike Moo where you can have 100 different cards if you so choose.