This time next week, we’ll open The Queer Face of War in Vienna as part of the Eurovision “Offstage” program to run during the song competition. From there, I’ll head to Berlin for an event with Germany’s national LGBT organization, LSVD+, and then on to Kyiv to install another exhibition.
I naively assumed that turning the book into an exhibition would be easy. How hard is it to print some pictures and slap them on the wall? I’ve learned a ton in the past several weeks about paper choices, exhibition design, and the fine art market. To accompany the exhibitions, I’ve been collaborating with an incredible Ukrainian sound artist, who is combining excerpts from my interviews into an original composition. And I’ve been working with a brilliant graphic designer to turn an expanded set of photographs into a slide show version that conveys the narratives in the book.
Photo by David Bivins
One of my last stops in Brooklyn was a visit to Picto New York, the US outpost of a printing company founded in Paris in the 1950s. Picto gained prominence working with the Magnum Photo Agency, and today prints for some of the world’s top photographers. While I was there to review test prints, I learned they were working on prints by one of my photography heroes for installation at the Smithsonian.
I must have stared at the images in this project for hundreds of hours on my computer over the last four years, but it’s a revelation to see them take on a physical life. It was thrilling seeing the images printed for the first time in the book. Seeing them come to life in prints as large as 40x60 is truly overwhelming.
Hot off the printer!
I’m deeply grateful to everyone who’s donated to help make these events possible. I’m just $600 away from reaching the $5,000 goal to fund the events this summer. If you’re able to help me get over the top, it would be a tremendous help.
I’ll post photos from the exhibitions, of course. (I also wound up with a press pass to the Eurovision Song Competition itself, so I may post some other pics too ;-) And I’ll open print sales soon in both the US and Europe, so stay tuned.
Thanks!
Lester