Looking Back: My First Exhibition

Exhibition #NewYorkNewYork at the Museum of Photography (Tallinn, Estonia, Feb-April 2018)

Same time last year I was probably elegantly (how else) panicking how my very first photo exhibition will come together. A year later I have finally gotten around to sharing some photos and "behind the scenes" of the exhibition here on the blog (mainly 'cos I did share all the best bits already on Facebook and Instagram).

First things first -  I am forever grateful to everyone who made it happen! (Exclamation marks ad infinitum.)

Here you can read the "official" description of the exhibition. Less officially - I put together everything that I was drawn to at the time (and still am for most part). Urbanscapes, analogue photography, Instagram, time travel, square format, hashtags, neon lights, street photography, DIY, interaction, present and past. I hardly ever go out just to take photographs. Rather when I am out and about I feel like I need to collect the moments around me, so I can savor them, discard them, alter them, investigate them, share them etc.

At the Museum of Photography we had rails underneath the pictures, so visitors could add hashtags to photos. Some of which I had created beforehand and blank "tiles" people could fill with their own ideas. I now own a zip lock bag filled with a variety of hashtags in several languages. I absolutely love that. It's like a distant analogue interaction between me, my photos and people who came to see the exhibition.

All self made. In the dark room and in the less dark kitchen and living room (yes, there's still spray paint residue in my kitchen, most probably). Testing different paints and materials. Deciding on the measurements and making sure there's no dust under the glass (like truly impossible). Shopping for fun things (construction stores and art supply stores... like I really need a reason to visit those). Oh and choosing the photos. Good thing there were time constraints. One of the hardest things is to discard a photo you love, but that doesn't fit in with the others. (It's like democracy - majority wins.)

One would think that framing 13 photos cannot take too long. Wrong. So wrong. Position, dust, position, dust... dust. And not to stain anything. I have all this new found respect for anyone ever having to go through something similar.

So from all that to this. Easy peasy. ;)

What you cannot "see" here is the absolutely fabulous soundtrack my good friend composed for the exhibition. I do hope that one day somewhere the photos and music can come together again. Currently all neatly tucked away in a box in my wardrobe.

Ps. Photos here do no justice to how cool it all looked IRL, even if I do say so myself.