Earlier in may I took part in the group exhibit Photography Now at The Brick Lane Gallery in a two-week exhibition. This marked the third time that I have exhibited my fine art limited edition prints, hopefully to a new audience.

Between my first foray into art fairs and now, is a period of 18 months. Along the way, I’ve learnt a lot & made mistakes, so here are a few lessons learnt from taking the plunge.

1) Taking a leap

I set up my website in 2022 with the purpose of not only showcasing my fine art wildlife photography but also providing a Print Store by which anyone could purchase one of my limited-edition prints. In addition, I made a commitment that 10% of any sale would contribute to various conservation charities that meant something to me. Since 2022 my sales have contributed over £1000 to Amboseli Trust for Elephants, Mara Elephant Project & Polar Bears International. (links to page)

I was also encouraged by a fellow photographer & mentor, Tom Way, to consider exhibiting my work at a local art fair, so that people could physically see my work. The one Tom recommended was Windsor Art Fair.

2) Do Your Research

When I investigated Windsor Art Fair, I saw it was managed by a company called Contemporary Art Fairs. Besides Windsor they managed others including Sandown and Harrogate. Before committing to Windsor, which was due to take place in November, I attended Sandown Art Fair to get answers to a few questions I had as follows

How was it run?
Who was exhibiting?
What were the price points?
What was the footfall like?
What did the stands look like?

3) Beware of overspending

Following a positive experience at Sandown, and confident that my artwork could not only stand out but also was priced reasonably I booked a spot at Windsor.

I then had 4 months to prepare everything. I booked a medium sized stand costing £1500. By going to Sandown, I had seen what a similar stand looked like and was able to gauge how many prints I would need to make my stand look visually enticing.

Besides this upfront cost, I also put a lot of thought in not only the number of prints but also which images & then get them framed. I worked with great partners on this- Jagdeep at Kili Arts for my printing & Ann at Picture This Art & Framing. Some of my considerations were as follows-

What images would attract potential buyers for wall art. I decided on a mix of elephant, polar bear & African animals including lions & giraffes. Check out my collections here

The mix of black & white & colour images to offer choice & complement various interior décors
For framing rather than put everything in a black frame, I decided what was right for the print, so one of my polar bear images was in a white frame, a majestic lion in a gold frame & silver for a King Penguin print.

This added cost, but I wanted my first exhibition experience to look as professional as possible & reinforce my fine art style.

Consequently, even with good deals on printing and framing this cost me a further £4000.

I also had travel costs and needed help hanging all the prints, so this added another £500.

My stand at the art fair did look amazing & I thought matched the caliber of my work, but as the average price of one of my framed prints was £750 it meant that I had to sell almost everything to break even. At the end of three days & despite very positive feedback I sold only two prints.

Whilst I was encouraged to have put myself and my fine art photography out there to a public audience, in hindsight I was too optimistic about potential sales.

I could have mitigated some of the up-front costs by having more prints mounted where the average cost was £35 as opposed to framing which was £300.

In addition, whilst I thought Windsor was in an affluent catchment area, the attendees were looking for a Christmas present bargain and not investing in unique fine art wall art.

4. Don’t Give Up

Whilst my sales at Windsor were disappointing, I nevertheless got huge satisfaction from showing my fine art wildlife photography to a wider audience. I had lots of positive feedback not only from attendees, fellow artists and friends who came to show support.

I now had a stock of artwork, so looked into other art fair possibilities & the one that stood out was Sussex Art Fair at Goodwood.

The appeal of Sussex Art Fair was the location. Goodwood is a beautiful racecourse with amazing facilities and is a premiere destination in the South of England. I also had friends living close by so could minimize additional expenses in terms of set up of my stand & travel & accommodation for the three days. The only expense was the cost of the stand which again was £1500.

I had a huge amount of positive feedback & appreciation of my photography and there was a better & a more affluent footfall at Goodwood, but my sales again were limited to two prints. Whilst on the face of it this was frustrating at least I had almost broke even this time.

5 Keep building your social media

I was approached in early March by one of the managers at Brick Lane Gallery after seeing my images on Instagram, to take part in a group exhibit aimed at showcasing the work of new & emerging photographers.

Before committing I went to this well renowned gallery to look at the space. To take the back wall in the gallery cost £750 and as this is the first thing you see as you walk into the space, I thought that was a prime spot. If there are any sales over these two weeks, I keep 100% of the revenue (which I thought was a good deal) and they also hang everything so no costs there.

As 18 months have gone by and I have done many more photography expeditions during that time, I will be showcasing some new fine art prints, but these will be hung as mounted rather than framed prints to again minimize upfront costs.

The gallery has 65k followers on Instagram (vs Sussex Art Fair 3.5k) so I am hoping that that extended social media reach over the next two weeks could potentially help sales.

This is another opportunity and a relatively low-cost way to invest in myself & my work. It also gives me lots of potential content for social media and my website and who knows what else will come from it. Sales is obviously top of my wish list but if this also leads to other gallery opportunities that could be the catalyst to help further my fine art wildlife photography reputation.