the boards.ie photography exhibition wild plan I had

I am up to my eyes this afternoon so sorry for the slight delay.

I want to make it absolutely clear that I have a deep and principled objection to the idea of applying a theme to this exhibition. When I say deep and principled objection, I mean to the extent of abandoning the project altogether if the balance of preference is for a theme.

Ultimately, I wanted to highlight the diversity of styles and subjects covered by this. You'll notice that in the first post I referred to the community building. That community didn't get built because we all took the same photographs. It got built because we opened each other's eyes to a wealth of different styles and talents. I want the photographs to come from anywhere within each photographer's archive. I don't want the choice to be limited by any concept other than what you personally consider to be your best photograph or the photograph you particularly want to exhibit. Applying a theme - in my opinion - is an artifical construct and is exclusive rather than exclusive.

I have no objection to calling the exhibition "Boards Eye View" (great title C-E). I have massive objections to providing a framework on choice so in terms of making it linked to this board in some way...I really don't think it's a good idea.

Apart from People's Exhibition, to my knowledge, we haven't tried to organise this before. I'd like it to be simple, particularly if I'm doing the bulk of the work here. I have a lot on my shoulders, but I also feel that this is something which could be very interesting for all participants. Whilst it may be a comfort to some people to have a theme to work to, it may have the impact of causing others to feel they do not quite fit in. That, in fact, is exactly how I felt when I saw Paulw's response, for example.

Rojo: it is not practical to tell people to do a particular photograph for this exhibition. Given the large number of people potentially involved, and given their lives, it would be kinder to tell them to go through their archive and select one. Not everyone gets what they want in a given time frame. I'd be saddened, for example, if Danny's shots from Valentia were excluded because the theme was shoot for exhibition. He may not choose those photographs anyway, but I'd like him to have the option.

magicbastarder: you're losing the run of yourself into the area of digital art somewhere plus there is the question of copyrights and derivative works. Currently only one of my photographs is released for derivative works. I don't intend to change that and I wouldn't consider it the point of this exhibition to force others to do so. Again, it's an artificial construct which limits people's ability to show off the full scale of their ability and chosen field.

In summary then: no theme. Absolutely no theme.

Regarding photographs to be submitted to either the flickr group or pix.ie tag/userid which ever we go for, it does not have to be a final choice per se. This may take months to sort out and people are constantly improving, changing their opinion on their shots. The idea is to have something to show the people who might - and I really mean might - be able to give us funding. Mounting exhibitions can be prohibitively expensive and we don't have space of our own. We will need help to do it and an indication of what we have to offer is what I have in mind here.