(Don’t be) camera shy
As flickr continues to prove, there’s a little Walker Evans in us all. But most of us have yet to see our inner artist celebrated on a gallery wall. Art House founders and Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta students Shane Zucker and Steven Peterman are determined to change that.
On November 1, the overachieving undergraduates will send hundreds of disposable cameras to anyone who signs up to receive one as part of their interactive, adventure-themed photo contest. They’re asking folks to step outside their daily routine, fill the roll of film while they’re at it, and send the photos back. The results will be displayed in their show A Million Little Pictures, Volume 3, which goes up sometime in December. Anyone can enter—and in case the prestige of being in a gallery show isn’t enough, the winner of “best overall photo” will receive a $200 Airtran voucher to use on airfare to the exhibit.
Not only is the show good for amateur photogs’ egos, it’s also good for charity. Zucker and Peterman are donating $1.25 from each $16 entry fee (which covers the camera and a postage-paid envelope) to one of four charities of your choice—the Humane Society of the U.S., the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the National Suicide Hotline, or the World Wildlife Fund.
After hosting the first two installments of AMLP at their Decatur, GA gallery, the fellas have decided to host the show in the city with the most participants. You can track the competition by state, and California just pulled into second, so I’m hoping to overtake Georgia soon—otherwise the guys might not be traveling very far.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, as I was, what will happen to the spent camera shells—the words “disposable” and “single-use” make me cringe—Zucker assured me that he and Peterman take recycling very seriously. In addition to insisting that all the cameras be recycled, they’re re-using the plastic pieces in an installation around the exhibit, then returning them to the developer for reuse once the exhibit is over.
Chalk it up to Southern hospitality, but a gallery this genuinely open and cooperative is a rare bird in the often peacocky art world. So don’t be camera shy. Let out your shut-in shutterbug and go click those pics!
