Milford CT Followup

I finally made more than the booth fee there but still lost money overall when travel expenses were taken into account. Losing money is such hard work. On the other hand I sold my largest piece to date- a $200.00 sale. I also won first prize for photography out of maybe a dozen or so photographers so that was very cool. This show had the largest attendance of any I've done so far- maybe in the tens of thousands. I wrote before going to Great Neck that it was going to be my biggest show so far at 50,000 but it was definitely under 10,000- maybe more like 5000. These show produces lie so bad when it comes to attendance numbers and I keep falling for it. Milford was in line with stated attendance though. I also went through the most business cards at any event so far.

Otherwise it was pretty much same kinds of people most excited about my work- more professors (I'm thinking Yale faculty make more than Bucknell people but I could be wrong), other kinds of art people (I've had two sales to other artists now) and other professionals of various kinds. There were more Europeans also- French folks this time. They seemed startled by my work. They were very inquisitive about it- asking what the various things in my pictures were and how I came to be photographing such things. They were very much victims of the lighthouse/bird-in-tree/ bear photographers and seemed to have very low expectations when it came to art photography. I wonder if they have art fests in Europe. It would cost a small fortune to go over there though with a boot setup.

I seem to be developing a following among landscape/nursery people and I have more prints on the way that I think they'll appreciate. I also had my youngest patron to do date. A boy around five or six was quite taken with my work for some reason. He was so cute in how he went about asking about the prices of my framed pictures- even trying to finagle one for free. But he only had a budget of $5 so he finally settled on my spider card. He asked if it only could be used as a card to be sent to someone. I told him that he could find a small frame for it and use it as a picture. So his dad is going to help him make a little frame for it.

I didn't have as much opportunity to get around to other photographers and artists to ask how the event was going for them because I was getting much more booth traffic than past shows. But one photographer who was able to get around dropped by. And I did talk to a couple of other 2-D people- all painters. From what I gathered there were only two photographers who were doing well there and they both sold more traditional/conventional work than mine. The painters I talked to said it was a show that you have to attend for a couple of events before it becomes financially worthwhile. The people there need to get to know you and they want to see that you're serious about what you're doing before they'll start buying much from you. The painters and most of the crafts people seemed to be doing well- primarily with established customers. And that's a positive sign for the overall art market this summer in contrast to the Sugarloaf events and Lewsiburg.

I'll definitely return to Milford. From the interest expressed I'm confident I can establish a viable clientele there with a few more shows.

I'll be doing Quakertown PA this coming weekend (small one) and then it'll be Mayfair in Allentown PA for memorial day weekend. Mayfair is a major deal at five days and large crowds.

But I gotta get back to making some lighthouse prints for this weekend.