Photographer starts a series of virtual exhibitions and you can be a part of it too

The pandemic has made us come up with alternative ways to visit exhibitions and showcase our own work. Photographer Christopher Larson has started a fantastic initiative that will bring back creativity and joy to photographers in these challenging times. He has started a series of virtual exhibitions where you view other photographers’ work, connect with them, but exhibit your own photos as well. We’ve chatted with Christopher about the project a bit, and he told us how you can view the exhibitions, but also how you can join them.

The virtual exhibition

The first online exhibition is already up. Chris has teamed up with Saurabh Narang, and they showcase ten photos each. This month’s theme is “Spread Joy,” and you can take a virtual walk through the exhibition, look at the photos, and listen to the photographers talk about them. It’s pretty cool!

Chris’ virtual exhibitions will take place monthly. “My goal is to partner with a new photographer every month where we each take 10 photos around a theme that is inspired by people from our social media networks and followings,” Chris tells DIYP. “So far I already have photographers interested for the next 6 months, which is really exciting!”

Chris reveals that the main idea is to work with other photographers every month. The exhibition will launch on the first day of each month and last until the end of the month. “Right now I am working with just one other photographer, just to spread things out,” Chris says. However, if there’s a lot of interest, then he’ll include more photographers each month.

So how can you join?

The idea is for these exhibitions to be interactive and up to date. Chris wants you to send out a call for your social network followers and have them help you choose the themes. Along with Chris, you’ll then go through the themes you both received, choose one, and each shoot ten photos to meet the theme. Of course, shoot the way you see it and understand it, there are no strict rules.

“I would like to not dig through archives (even though that was what we did here for the first month to just launch it),” Chris tells DIYP “I like the idea of providing small ‘passion projects’ to help push our creativity as photographers.” Personally, I like this idea way more than digging through the archives, since I think many of us need a bit of a “push” to get creative again during these COVID-19 times. I sure know I do.

Anyways, when you choose the theme and take the photos, you’ll submit ten of them, plus ten audio recordings explaining the pictures. Chris will upload it to the virtual exhibition and launch it together with an Instagram/Facebook live group conversation. You’ll also be featured on Chris’ exhibition page with a link to your site, and you can also embed the exhibition on your site too. If you want to sell photos, you can do that too, or just take orders and organize printing yourself. “People are allowed to submit comments and interest through the exhibition as well,” Chris concludes.

I believe that you wonder if there’s a price to this whole experience. I have good news: it’s free. Even though Chris pays a small monthly fee to keep the exhibitions live, he wants to keep this free for the photographers. “I think it is a really cool way for people to see their work hanging in an exhibition and I don’t want to charge anything for it,” he says. “I am just looking for passionate photographers who want to tell a story and present their work!”

So, if you like this idea as much as I do, go ahead and take a look at the current exhibition. If you’d like to join, you can reach out to Chris via his website or Instagram here and here. And here are a few more photos he and Saurabh kindly shared with us to tease you a bit further. :)