Do you display your photos at the office?

[Heroique]

Please tell us why you display your LF photos at work.

What could possibly motivate you to do such a thing? ;^)

Sure, makes sense if you’re a professional photographer trying to impress prospective clients.

And if you work out of your home – then why not?

But what about everyone else – people who “go to the office” where photography isn’t the main line of business. For example, you’re a real estate broker, financial planner, veterinarian, or palm reader. Can you explain why you do (or don’t) display your photos at the place where you earn a living?

And if you do, what’s your choice of presentation? As a screen saver? On a table-top stand? As a framed print on the wall – next to your diploma or professional certificate? Why is one presentation better than another? Do your photos appear where only you (and others in your work area) can enjoy them, or in a more public place, like the front lobby?

More interesting, do your photos inspire unusual comments from peers or customers? (i.e., “Just how did you get everything into focus?”) What points do you make to explain why your photos are “special” – or different than the run-of-the-mill photos in the next cubicle or office? Do you think other people in your office care much about what you’re doing? Is it even important for them to know? For example, is it a way of suggesting to them that you really do have an imaginative life outside of work? Is your boss worried that your non-work-related passion might distract you from more important duties? Or does it all simply come down to your personal pleasure?

Enough questions for now – please tell us more about your experience & any lessons learned...

;)

[Dan Fromm]

I did until I retired. One to three 8x10 color prints in standup frames on my desk.

I brought 'em in because I liked to look at them. I had a colleague who enjoyed them and from time-to-time a passerby would stop with a compliment, usually on sharpness or composition. But it all came down to my personal pleasure.


Is your boss worried that your non-work-related passion might distract you from more important duties?

Not my former management. They were aware of my outside interests, saw them as good. And I did a lot outside of work. Published articles on fish, did serious fish research and collaborated with ichthyologists, shot movies, went on field trips, dealt in lenses, was a consultant to the National Zoo, wrote articles on lenses, played my cello, ... It always seemed that the more engaged I was with my outside interests the more creative and energetic I was on the job. Sometimes it was the other way 'round. The more overloaded I was at work, the more and better I did outside. All manifestations of my various compulsions.

[chassis]

I do not presently display my prints in my office, but plan to. I am formulating an image in my mind, which includes product made by my company, in the work setting. It falls into the "industrial" category of photography. In this context the image is appropriate office decor for my workplace.

I would also display a landscape or still life, or a tasteful conservative portrait. I would limit the display to a small number (three or less) of images in my office. The principle I am operating on is "a little bit goes a long way" and "less is more".

[Greg Blank]

I display multiple photos at Omega Brandess and have for quite a few years. They have always allowed me to hang the pieces in the lobby and more recently throughout the the office. My works hangs along with other perhaps more note worthy photographer's work, but I have the Lions share. I display mostly 16x20's both analog Silver prints and I also have a 24x30 in the entrance meeting room that is a Digital scan from a 4x5 trans. Everything is framed in matte black frames with glass and matted by me. I always thought it was good exposure, given the range of people that visit the place. When we moved to the newest location a 50,000 sq warehouse and office, it became my job to hang all the artwork. I enjoyed the task. Oh and there is also my studio and house, I display both my own work and pieces that I have bought over the years. Most is my own, I display my client work, my scenics and my drawing and painting. I have track lighting that I wired myself with an electrician relatives oversite and approval and I have that in several places.

[Winger]

I wasn't shooting LF, yet, when I was still at the lab, but I showed my personal work there. Most of us had bulletin boards at our desks and maybe some wall space as well. I always had something up. They got comments from co-workers occasionally and some bought photos from me. My boss went camera shopping with me once. He bought a 35mm Nikon and I bought a Pentax 645N. It was a smallish group (20 or so people who didn't have to compete against each other for anything) and we mostly got along well.

[drew.saunders]

I work at a University, in IT, so it's not a particularly uptight and "professional" look to our cubicles. I use those cube-wall clip things to hang 4 8.5x11 prints outside my cubicle on the cube "wall," and change them every month or so as I have new things to show. Many coworkers like them and stop by to see if there's something new. I also have two framed prints in my cubicle on the wall. Most people in our organization decorate their space somehow, and, as long as it's tasteful, management doesn't care.

[John Rodriguez]

All the desks at my office have large black dividers for posting stuff. Mine is always full of prints in progress (7 right now). I'm here 9 hours a day, this way I spend any downtime noodling on how to improve em.

[Vaughn]

I stick a small print up with push pins along with a weekly quote outside my office door. Sometimes I even change them weekly!

Vaughn

[winterclock]

I have two 8x10's posted above my workbench- my dog:) and my favorite lighthouse. When I first put them up I got a lot of comments, mostly favorable. I may start changing them on a regular basis now that I almost have a darkroom.

[Brian Ellis]

I usually displayed three or four large black and white landscape photographs in my office. One day a newly-hired female associate came into my office for the first time, looked around at the photographs, and said "wow, those look just like the ones by . . . (long pause while she tried to think of the name) . . . Adam Ansel."

[Kirk Gittings]

....:)

[polyglot]

I work in engineering, which means there are lots of photographers here. Many of us have our office walls papered with prints and it's always interesting to wander around and see what people have up.

[Steve Smith]

We had a company art exhibition in the canteen a few years ago. It was mainly paintings though.


Steve.

[Richard M. Coda]

I work at home. In the "office" are all snapshots of my daughter, beautifully arranged by her "scrapbook" style which I have framed in shadow box frames. In the hallway to my office are three large prints by local photographer friends of mine. I have a wall devoted to Westons behind the bar, an AA and a Henry Gilpin in the kitchen. I have two more by me in the kitchen, then a wall devoted to Phoenix (8x10 contact prints) in the guest BR. A color abstract in the powder room (Rust Abstract) which matches the mirror we have in there. Three honeymoon (4x5) images from Alberta NP over the headboard in the MBR. The hallway from the garage into the house is lined with 16x20 color prints from urban Phoenix on one side and 8x10 BW of trees on the other. Three Huntington Witherill color botanical abstracts and a huge Jack Dykinga (dead agave) in the dining room. I have had to give up some space recently to display my daughter's beautiful cowboy pastels, though.

[Scott Walker]

I have about a half dozen prints of varying sizes thumbtacked to the wall in my office and they seem to change with my mood.

[Eric Rose]

Yes I have tons of my photos up. But I work from home so I guess that doesn't count.

[Greg Blank]

Adam Ansel? Wasn't he that famous Rock star? Everyone knows at least two famous rock stars & and one is invariably Adam Ansel :D

[John Kasaian]

Beauty always adds, it never detracts. The cubicals I used to work in at the SOB (State Office Building) despirately needed beauty. A few B&W landscapes add much to any office or break room. Rotate them so there is something fresh every couple of months, People will take notice and comment---a show of creativity invites comment.

[Stephane]

Framed 8x10 contact prints portraits of my work colleagues. We are 6, so it was not too demanding...

[gevalia]

I have been displaying a few 8x10 prints in my offices since I started LF around '05. I just started a new job last week and put 3 up the 1st day. They are ice breakers and conversation pieces.

When I left my last job I left a large print to my manager. It was a big building and the company put expensive liths and original B&W prints on the walls - tax writeoffs - but it wasn't really common knowledge. Anyway, shortly after I left my manager and I had lunch and he told me that he replaced that awful print outside my office with mine. Just took it on his own to do it because he liked my print. I didn't have the heart to tell him what he had done.

[Richard M. Coda]

I remember back in the mid-late 1980s, my wife worked at Morgan Stanley in NYC. I only went to her office a few times, usually to pick her up for dinner in the city and/or a gallery/museum opening... anyway, I loved going there... big, beautiful Bernice Abbott prints (not posters) all over the place.