After some issues with last year's edition, the Guerilla Photography Exhibition returned to Avenue K. It was on for a couple of weeks and would run for until this coming weekend. I had the opportunity to visit last Wednesday - it was Awal Muharram then.
Located on the third floor of the newly refurbished Avenue K, the place was quite tricky to find. Reading the Facebook postings on the event, I was expecting a big show. It turned out to be on a much smaller scale than I anticipated.
The show occupied the steps of a pavilion they had there - called the Spanish Steps. The photos were stuck on the the steps forming a cascade upwards. The content was fine but the curation I found problematic. It appeared to be a mishmash of photographers who just landed there and decided to stick their photos. SOme of them clearly with themes - angles of building corners, their cats etc - while others just put up a selection of their favourite snaps, with no back story to capture my attention. I could fine those on some Flickr feed if I wanted to.
At the entrance
I felt that this print should be hang higher than ankle level
And then came the actual printing. Again, there were a lack of standardisation. Some of the prints were excellent with great contrasts and vivid colours. Unfortunately that was not universal. I must say that one could come up with similar prints from their home printers. The size of the prints were also problematic. A3 seemed to be the biggest, if not A2 with a fat frame! The selection lacked punch.
And then there was one particular print which I found inappropriate. A photo of an Arabic phrase which is holy amongst Moslem, stuck to its spot at foot level ... an oversight from the organiser if I may say so personally.
I support the effort but I felt for the exhibition to have any sort of impact in the future, it would need some serious thinking behind it. And this is sad since I knew some of the people organising the event. I wanted this exhibition to go on, but we need to get it done with a purpose! The venue was OK but maybe it needed better publicity as finding the place could be tricky! Good luck guys!