Photo swap raises profile for Birmingham photography gallery campaign
Professional and amateur photographers were yesterday given the opportunity to share their work and swap photos, at an event organised by Birmingham Photospace.
The ‘Flash Swap’ was the group’s first publicity event, intended to raise the profile of their campaign for a dedicated photography gallery in Birmingham.
Although hidden away in a dark corner of the Custard Factory, it was well attended. All the walls of the spacious gallery were adorned with photographs brought along by the visitors.
The exhibition grew throughout the day as people brought along their photographs. Then at five-thirty Patrick Wilcox, founder of Birmingham Photospace, gave an introduction and started the swap.
We had all been given one sticker for each photo that we’d brought, and could use these to claim photos of a similar size and quality from someone else. Although there were reports of people removing stickers or covering someone else’ with their own, most people behaved themselves.
I came away with three photographs: ‘Luminarium‘ by Julia Gilbert, which was taken inside an exhibition at Birmingham’s ArtsFest; ‘Mondrian was here‘ by George Daley, taken behind Five Ways shopping centre in Birmingham; ‘Crazy Paving’, also by George Daley, taken outside The Public in West Bromich. (The former two are displayed on this page.)
I took a few for swapping. I know the two of my cat Pepper were claimed, and I think the one of the deck chairs may have been too (all three are displayed on this page).
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Hi Michael – it was good to chat to you at the Flashswap and thanks for referencing my pictures here. The one on the page above was actually taken round the back of Five Ways shopping centre, not the Public, which is all shiny surface and not much else at the moment. Like many others I thought the Flashswap was a really enjoyable day and I hope that there will be a repeat at some time in the future, as well as other events that raise the profile of the Photospace project. Cheers.