Top Tips for Preparing and Holding a Solo Photography Exhibition

Organising your own exhibition is a landmark moment for any photographer. It can help increase your profile, allow you to network with visitors and garner interest in your work potentially leading to more sales and opportunities. But it is no walk in the park; this is a big project to undertake and you need to be prepared for the time, money and mental space it will use up. Here are my tips to help you plan and curate your solo photography exhibit.

Prepare in good time

For a solo exhibition, you should give yourself roughly 3-6 months to prepare, allowing for delays, new ideas or a change of plan. You are not just relying on you, but the availability of your space, the time it takes to get things printed and framed, the time to advertise so people can put it in their diaries and many other eventualities that arise when taking on this sort of project.

Decide a theme

Galleries and museums employ curators whose job is to tell a story through particular art or objects. You need to be the curator of your exhibition and this involves deciding what it is you are trying to convey. It can be as loose or detailed as you want, but deciding this early on will help enormously in every other factor of preparation from location to presentation. Your theme may simply be the style of photography that is unique to you. It could be a selection of photographs from one place or season. Or it could be a much deeper narrative with social, political or philosophical undertones. You don’t even need to spell it out at the exhibition unless you want to; but you as an artist should know what the embedded narrative is.

Choosing the right space

Choose a venue that makes sense for your work. If you are a street photographer, there’s no point holding it in a stately home in the middle of the countryside; choose a venue that’s appropriate for your style and audience. Think beyond the ‘white box’ gallery (for one, these are the most expensive!), and look closer to home at local halls, libraries, restaurants or ‘pop up’ venues in warehouses and studios.

You should consider logistics like how accessible the venue is, are there public transport links and does it have good parking? A big deal breaker for many people is if the venue is staffed or not. If it is then your presence is not necessary every day as the venue pay people to look after the exhibition for you. However, smaller, less established but more affordable venues may not have staff and it will be up to you to open, close and ‘man’ the exhibition each day according to their regulations. Also, be prepared that some venues may want to take a percentage from each sale you make – ask this question early on so you’re not faced with a surprise later.

Be wary of the growing number of galleries who don’t use the commission based business model, but ask artists for an upfront cost to show their work. I was recently approached by a Shoreditch gallery who wanted £600+ for a tiny piece of wall space for their group exhibition with no guarantee of sales. If galleries are as successful as they claim to be and genuinely cared about their artists, they wouldn’t need this scammy type of business model. I must reiterate, that this is different from the scenario of hiring a venue yourself where you are very much in control of the exhibition. This is a situation where galleries prey on and exploit emerging artists by promising exposure but in reality it is highly unlikely you’ll turn a profit after that extortionate ‘pay to play’ fee. Do your research into these galleries and the footfall they get and how they plan to market their exhibition. If neither look great, run. I would highly advise to avoid these so-called “opportunities” and put your money towards hiring your own venue or show somewhere with a legally binding commission based incentive.

Set a budget

Exhibiting on your own does not come cheaply. Unless you can find a sponsor, grant, or a collaborator, it is down to you to foot the bill for everything and dependent on how big your exhibition is, it could run into the thousands. Allocate finances for:

• Venue hire

• Printing, framing and hanging your work (this will likely be the bulk of your expenditure)

• Advertising/marketing

• Promotional materials such as leaflets, posters, banners, business cards

• Functional & decorative items depending on how much your venue already provides such as display tables, stands and lighting

• If you are selling something, enough stock to last you the entire exhibition

• Transporting the artworks

You might know someone who knows someone who can do you a discount, but it’s safer to work out the cost of every element before you commit, rather than relying on somehow winging it as you go.

Advertise

Do not underestimate the necessity to advertise! You need to attack this from all angles so social media, online ads, your own website or blog, mailing list, press release, contacting local newspapers, posters/leaflets. Devote time every day on the run up to your exhibition to advertise: basically don’t shut up about it. Build up a social media presence and good relationships with your followers prior to announcing your exhibition and they will naturally want to support you. The idea is to keep it at the forefront of people’s minds. It may be all you can think about, but people are forgetful and even if they pencil it in their diary 2 months in advance, they could easily double-book because they didn’t have the constant visual reminders they need.

Sell something

Make the work you are exhibiting available for sale. People have already shown an interest just by turning up, there’s nothing to say they won’t also want to buy your work. In addition you could sell cards, stationery, calendars or a book of your photographs. Not only will this help promote you, but from a financial point of view you can make back some of the money you’ve spent holding the exhibit in the first place and if you’re really lucky, make a profit.

Follow up

Once your exhibition is over, don’t think of that as the end. You could collect visitors’ email addresses in a feedback book so you can send them your newsletter with information on where you’ll be exhibiting next. You could forward people to your website where they can place further orders and you could document the experience on your social media or blog. It’s important to have a space you can make a record of the exhibition so if you are ever in review for an opportunity, those people can see your previous experience easily. The obvious way to do this is on your website which is essentially your ‘calling card’.

Enjoy yourself

You’ve put the hard work in, don’t forget to enjoy sharing your work, you should be very proud of yourself!