What I Learned At Art Fairs, Part 1

Starting about five years ago, I began displaying my photography at select art fairs. I found these absolutely invaluable for seeing how people react to different pictures and artwork, overall. You get a huge number of people looking at your work.  At a larger show you might have ten thousand people come in your booth and view your pictures.  At first that is intimidating, but after a while it is just fun.

I have a large display (a double booth), and it can attract quite a crowd.  As a result, people often don’t  see me as they view my pictures, and even if they do, they don’t know who I am. I don’t wear a badge or other identification as the artist. This gives me an opportunity to listen to what they are saying to their friends as they look at my pictures. Thankfully, people seem to really enjoy them, so it tends to be nice things.

It also gives me a great opportunity to talk to people about my pictures and what they are seeing at the art fair. They often want to know how my pieces are made. Very often they like talking about places they have been. Through it all I have learned a lot. Much of what I’ve learned is things I already knew, but that have been greatly reinforced by listening and talking with people.

There Has to Be a Connection

The first thing I learned is that a person has to have a special connection to a piece for them to want to buy it. In some cases, that is a bond with the artist. For me though, most of the time it is a bond with the place. I tend to photograph recognizable places, so for the person to have any interest in buying one of my photographs, they have to have a special connection to that particular place. I could have the most beautiful picture in the world of Machu Picchu, but if the person has not been there, they will have no interest. Conversely, one could have a mediocre picture of a non-descript place, but if that place happens to be where they spent their summers growing up, they will immediately feel a deep connection.

This was not an earth-shattering revelation, of course. What was somewhat surprising is that it is always true. There are no exceptions. I suppose I initially though that if I could create a truly great picture that people would want to buy it. But they won’t, unless there is meaning. That is paramount.

What This Means at BEHN Gallery

So how has this impacted what we are trying to do at BENH Gallery?  Well, it is making me go to a lot more places to photograph for one thing!

That’s partially a joke, but only in part. I am always going to different places trying to get great pictures of different landscapes, cities, coast, lines, etc. Within BEHN, in the last year, we have added galleries on cities (Big City Nights) and coastal scenery (Coastlines) to our existing galleries. I also added a special collection, entitled World Travels with a variety of different dramatic scenes and perspectives.  We know we need more places to give people more opportunities to find meaning.

The second thing is that I don’t take it personally if someone decides my pictures are not for them. Looking for pictures with meaning has elements of searching for a needle in a haystack, and I get that a lot more now. That supports one of our goals at BEHN Gallery, which is to make people feel welcome and relaxed. I don’t want them to feel pressure to buy, or that they need to sneak out the door when we aren’t looking because otherwise we will try to sell them something they don’t want. We want them to find the right picture.

But finally – and perhaps most importantly - knowing this has reinforced the decision to join Roben and create BEHN Gallery in the first place. The reality is that no photographer or artist can be all things to all people. People appreciate different places, different styles, different mediums, and different perspectives.  Nobody can fill all those different needs. If you try, you are just watering down your own artwork. Yet by joining with Roben, who has a different style and way of seeing things from me, we can cover a much broader scope.  We create remarkably different pictures that appeal to very different people.