Four weeks from now the bulk of our Lux Locus Degree show should be built. We open for the VIP view on the evening of 5th June. The next VIP night is 12th June in Free Range, London. All in all, these shows, London being the most expensive, have set us back £11,000 but such is the generosity of strangers, we have raised the £7000 odd pounds from well wishers, ourselves and the gifts of others. We still have more to raise.
I have my medium format Portra 400 work printed and ready for framing, portfolio box ready also. Now it is a question of topping and tailing the hand-in products. So much keyboard bashing awaits me over the next few weeks whilst I catch up on what has been parked whilst helping bring in the money I mentioned above.
On Tuesday this week I sit down with the masters of C Type large format printing – Metro Imaging – where I expect to be stunned by the output from drum scanned Portra 400 5×4 negatives I dropped off last week. I expect to print off 4 135x110cm prints for our London show. I was loathe to base my whole third year on hanging one print in Ipswich for assessment but the sheer size of the space in London warrants some big images and I feel that those shot in the later stages of my project are the pinnacle of what I have discovered whilst studying at UCS. It all seems like it is a done deal now.
How timorous I felt going back into school 3 years ago, how frustrated I got with lack of interactive debate, how drained I became at putting in countless hours of effort on the behalf of the group, how astounded I was at strangers’ generosity, how privilged I have been to gain access to famous artists and their work and also curate several exhibitions, and how amazed I am at the general acceptance of other active artists I have met in the Arts faculty.
I shall miss all this when I hit the cliff in June but I shall have to snap out of it pretty sharply to catch up on the jobs that have been on hold for 3 years and step back into commerce. These three years have been a massive drain on resources, pecuniary and health, and I need to restock.
That said, looking at https://wanderlustcameras.com/ and also the new Type 55 Kickstarter projects I can already see what I might earn draining away quite quickly.