Gallery shows are wonderful, a lot of work and tough to come by. The competition for gallery space is intense and the reward is fleeting and very often not financially rewarding. Yet, we still pursue this as a venue to display our art. There is prestige and honor to have our works shown in a gallery.
Yet, I see gallery shows as a thing of the past. We just don’t go out to galleries and museums as much as in the past. It is so much more convenient to see photographic images just about any time we want by visiting a website (or a blog). We are not required to go to a certain place at a specified time to see photographs. We can do so from the comfort and convenience of wherever we have our smartphone, tablet or computer. We see more photographs online than in galleries or museums by a factor of, what, a Billion or so? With the internet and a smartphone, we don’t have to make a special trip to see photographs. Photographic images are with us all the time, just a click or so away.
Instagram, Facebook and whatever the latest image sharing site is the latest rage are where photographs are going to be seen in the future. We will still have museums, but my guess is that museums will have photographs as more of a curiosity or historical artifact than anything else.
The transition from physical to virtual world should be a strategic effort for photographers. Participating in the virtual world is more effective in showing work to more people, more times and done with less work than having a gallery show.
The Bishop and the Bicycle in Wurzburg, Germany. More street photography featuring bicycles in Europe.
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