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Andrew O'Neill
29-Nov-2004, 14:24
Hi everyone! I went out and took some photos yesterday with Deniz (another member of LF forum), and he told me that over at apug they do a print exchange program. They are in groups of 4 and send a print to each group member. Anybody here interested in doing the same? We could do it maybe 3 or 4 times a year. I think it would be neat!

Deniz
29-Nov-2004, 15:45
Andrew, fell asleep at 6pm and woke up at 12.. boy did i sleep like a rock!!
and that 15mins of nap i took when you were shooting in the -5 temp, was the single best nap i'v ever took in my life..hahha

ok back to the topic.. visit www.apug.org for the details.

I hope this forum contributes on this aswell.. would be neat to receive large format print from someone.

laters

John D Gerndt
29-Nov-2004, 18:40
Andrew,

I receintly took a guy up on the idea of a print exchange, here is what went wrong...

1) People signed up and did not deliver on the goods. What am I going to do with my extra prints sent back?

2) There was a wide range of images from expert to pretty sorry.

3) It took months to organize and execute.

This having been said, I would still do it again but...

1) Limit it to people on this forum with more than ten postings or use some criteria for the selection/participation process both for reliability and quality of effort.

2) Limit it to contact prints, 4x5 to 8x10.

3) Limit it to ten participants at a time so the printing is not too taxing.

Posting the participants images on this site might be nice as would be some sort of positive feedback process for the images offered.

Just some ideas...

Cheers,

David A. Goldfarb
29-Nov-2004, 19:43
On APUG participants are assembled and divided into groups of 4 or 5 or so, and the time horizon is about 4 months. It works pretty well.

Another alternative is to do a traveling portfolio. I organize one on APUG which will be splitting into two when it completes it's next round, and there's also an alt-process traveling portfolio on APUG and a Travelling Exhibition (organized by commonwealth types who spell "travelling" with two l's) on f32.net. This is a great way to see other people's work, but the time horizon is longer. The APUG portfolio with 20 participants takes about a year to make a circuit.

APUG also has a postcard exchange. Participation seems to run in waves on this one. A few people send out postcards, and this gets others fired up to produce something. Of course this could only work easily with 5x7" or smaller, or with dupes of larger prints, but it could be neat. Postal mishandling is part of the postcard ethos.

Jan Van Hove
30-Nov-2004, 00:50
I also was on the print exchange that we did a while back here, and was very pleased with the results... Of course, as john said, all the photos were not masterpieces (my photo was one of those that were not very good, apologies to all exchangees...), and some people out of the 16 that signed up never sent in their photo...

Now, havind said that, it is a wonderful concept that i'd do again in a heartbeat, if only i had a darkroom at hand... (That's what moving to another continent will do to your photography setup...). Being able to "collect" photographs, real printed photographs instead of the usual pixels is good for a change, and brings with it wonderful learning opportunities...

Cheers !

PJ VH

Chuck_1686
30-Nov-2004, 05:47
I'm signed up for the current round of APUG exchange. It's nice as you only have 3-4 prints to send out. Of course you only get 3-4 back. Format seems pretty loose as to size, mounting etc. But no digital prints. For years I've also been involved in an exchange mostly involving people from the pure silver mailing list. That one goes 3-4 a year and involves 10-12 people. Prints are normally sent unmounted. A mailing list is setup and comments are expected from participants. People have used digital. I've gotten a nice collection of prints over the years. You do get the occasional person who doesn't send anything out. I don't mind if they communicate a good excuse. But some just disappear. You also will not like everything you get but I figure that someone considered this their good work and try to understand it. Don't forget that most people are not out there selling work and those that are probably are not interested in blind exchanges.

I'd like to see maybe more restrictive exchanges. Mainly by subject matter. I think in this forum you would have to require large format be used. And not sure if the 7x17 guys want to get a 4x5 contact in exchange. And you have to consider the digital print question and mounted or not. I lean to allowing digital and no mounting. Anyhow you just have set the standards. Then put out the call and see who's interested. Maybe break it down into smaller groups like APUG. Set a date, exchange address and go.

Jon Shiu
30-Nov-2004, 09:10
I signed up for the print exchange and then didn't receive any more emails. I suspect some type of email glitch. Disappointing.

Darin Cozine
30-Nov-2004, 11:31
Ditto Jon, I signed up about a year ago, was told there was no exchange that month but next month would be one. Never heard back.

I think the idea of a print exchange is great. It is nice to see the quality of work from different people firsthand. I would expect people at different levels contributing. But the organizer has to plan for some not participating.

Andrew O'Neill
30-Nov-2004, 12:38
Well, I think if we try it'll work. I don't mind trying to organize something. If anybody is seriously interested in doing a photo exchange, send me an email with a bit of info about yourself and the format you work in, conventional alternative printing, etc. If my andy8x10@canada.com doesn't work, please send to sagging_bellows@canada.com.