We went this weekend to the APA Something Personal exhibition.
The event has really blown up over the last three years. I s'pose about 1000 filtered through Left Space over the course of the evening, to check out 100 photographs from Bay Area photographers. It's kind of like the Academy Awards. Well, the square root of the Academy Awards. Oh and I doubt the fire marshal stops the serving of booze at the Academy Awards.
But it's a great time. It's always great to see all the people you worked with throughout the year, and catch up with the ones you didn't. Most everybody gets dressed up (there was one guy in a tuxedo), which is nice, and there's a lot of excitement.
Lots of portraiture this year, gritty, kind of journalistic stuff, and lots of journalistic or documentary stuff too. I guess people want to deal with important things during a downturn.
I shed a little tear because I didn't get in this year, unlike the last two years. But it was a crocodile tear.
It's strange to move from someone you barely know, to someone you know really well. From someone who's running the "I'm so busy oh god never a moment to catch my breath" schtick to someone who's stuck and wants to talk about it. From someone quite senior to someone who's mom might be picking him up later.
And it's a real fun time.