The photo exhibition at Gallery Unbound opened last Friday with a gathering of the contributing photographers, their friends and the Print 2 Metal team.

Last Friday was an emotional day: publishing the post to let everyone know our beloved Bengie had passed away, going to Anui to not only clean up the boat covered in dirt and bird poop, but also to collect Bengie’s things we had left on board and give them all away. And then there was the launch of the photo exhibition at Gallery Unbound. 

Here is the exhibition catalogue, a great preview of what is on display for two weeks and also accessible online.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cab9O-Q0TY06lCpR7sHDQKyeV5yXJV03

There are 74 pieces on display. They were all printed on aluminium by Print 2 Metal who is hosting the show. For those of you not familiar with metal prints, it is a high quality way of presenting your art work. A specialised dye-sublimation process is used. This is how it works:

• Print: The printer lays special dye-based inks onto transfer paper.
• Sublimate: Heat and pressure from a heat press turn the solid ink into a gas, which then permeates the coated aluminium surface, becoming a solid again.
• Result: This process creates prints that are permanent, won’t crack, fade, or wash out, offering exceptional color vibrancy and detail. 

Metal prints are incredibly durable, resistant to fading, scratching, and water damage; they are lightweight and easy to clean with a standard glass cleaner. We have used them extensively to display Reef and Seascape photos on Anui for all those reasons.

We were unsure about attending the opening as we were feeling fragile and not really in a mood to celebrate anything, but we forced ourselves to go, spurred along by the few close friends who joined us. We are glad we did. It was Chris’s first ever opportunity to exhibit her work in a gallery and the two images submitted looked stunning. Shame the person standing next to those two photographs had puffy eyes from so much grieving for our girl. The sorrow and tears come in swamping waves.

The 27 photographers who are taking part range from seasoned artists who do this for a living and had multiple images on show, to hobbyists who are exhibiting for the first time, like Chris.

As a novice in the game you can’t help but wonder whether your work will keep its sharpness in a big enlargement. You aren’t sure how your images will stack up against other photographers’ work, whether people will like them, whether the price tag you put on them is in line with other exhibitors…

All these doubts dissipated quickly. The Albatross in particular is very striking, different to anything else in the gallery, and it attracted a lot of commentary and questions. We will see whether either image sells, but even if they don’t, we will be proud to display them at home.

People are always keen to know where the photos were taken, what the conditions were like; they are surprised when you tell them you took the shots from your own boat in the Southern Ocean, off the West coast of Tasmania. They are interested in your background as a photographer, your motivation for taking the shots… We fielded the questions and directed similar queries at other artists. It was an interesting event followed by dinner with our faithful friends.

Thank you to the Print 2 Metal team for the invitation to participate, for the tremendous job of printing the images on a premium metal finish that glows. And of course thank you to Gallery Unbound for providing the art place.