What, you ask, does this mean for you? It means you can help a photographer fund an incredibly important project. Yes, YOU! And you can get some pretty amazing prints in the process.
From Mr. Shea himself:
ABOUT
As any artist or photographer can tell you, independently funding a full body of work and preparing the work for exhibition involves constant financial struggle. Receiving a grant to make Removing Mountains in 2007 was amazing, but if I kept waiting for another large sum of money to be awarded, I might never make another project. In 2009, I launched a print sale to hit the road for part one of a two-part trip to Southeast Ohio. The result of that trip is the edit of Plume that is currently on my website. I was able to fund the trip entirely through your generosity.
Plume is almost done. After one more trip to the region this summer, I will be able to make a complete edit and begin showing the work. Later this year I will have my first full exhibition of the work at the Appalachian Center in Kentucky. I’m launching a second print sale effort to fund the return travels to the region this summer and prepare for the Kentucky show and future exhibitions.
If you’re looking at this page, thank you, sincerely. I know not everybody who wants to help financially can, so if you’d like to help me out, post this link on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, whatever. Send an email to your uncle who likes pretty pictures. If you help me promote this on your blog, shoot me an email, and I’ll send you a thank-you in the mail (maybe a print, maybe something else).
This sounds mostly like business, but beyond issues of funding, I’m 100% committed to spending dedicated time in a region that has been the victim of duck-in/duck-out photojournalism and media-driven, grossly misrepresented stereotypes. Additionally, politically, at the center of this work is the issue of energy as it relates to our ability to distribute power in every form. 2010 is a year where I/we can feel one step closer to this conversation entering the public arena in a substantial way.
Did you catch that last paragraph? If you did, and it hit you like it did me, head on over to his site and contribute. Thanks!
