Only I would make a road trip to Minneapolis in mid-January! Luckily there was a heat wave (high 20’s) and a good time was had by all.
The Minneapolis Photography Center asked me to jury an international Music Photography contest. About a month and a half ago, I received a link to a website with about 700 images to scroll through. Each image had a yes and a no button next to it. My job was to narrow it down to 75 and pick three winners and three honorable mentions. It wasn’t easy, as there was some great stuff. But I did it. They also asked me to exhibit some of my images, which they offered to print for me.
So Wednesday I flew up to Minneapolis, was picked up by Orie, the owner of the Center and given a tour of the place. YIKES. What a fabulous place. It is in an old warehouse building and it has three great gallery spaces wrapped around digital and photographic darkrooms with large format Epson printers. A membership gets you use of all that stuff, along with all the printing you need (at a square inch price). The rock and roll exhibit was wrapped around two hallways and a full gallery. It was spectacular. Most of the images were from Minneapolis photographers. They have a great scene up there. While I was there a study came up that stated that Minneapolis had the 5th best art scene in America (Chicago didn’t maker the top ten) and it showed in the exhibit.
Thursday night before the opening we had a panel discussion about the state of Rock and Roll photography. I was on the panel with two of Minneapolis’s top photographers, Stephen Cohen (who won first place in the contest), and Tony Nelson, moderated by legendary music writer Jon Bream. A lively discussion ensued. When Jon and I got there about a half and hour before the discussion there were a hundred chairs setup, and about 3 people wandering around. Uh-O!! A half hour later all the chairs were filled and standing room was filled also!!
Friday night was opening night. The exhibit looked fabulous. They printed my stuff on a large format Epson printer and screwed the prints to the walls.
The Rock photo exhibit was massive, covered two rooms. They spent all day cooking pasta and preparing salads. When the doors opened people started pouring in. All together more than 500 people walked through the two exhibits! All of the artists that were in the exhibit had name tags with one of their images printed above their name. Attention to detail!!! It was a great time with a great photo community.