News from the 2017 Photo Regionals…

Last week, I dropped off my three entries into the 39th annual Capital District Photo Regionals art show at the Albany Center Gallery.  All three will remain on display, along with over 300 other photographs, at the Albany Center Gallery until March 10.  That’s the time period for the Photo Regionals’ “Salon Week.”

And after the salon week is completed, the judges will have winnowed out most of the pictures – leaving only the cream of the crop to remain as part of the Photo Regionals’ 2017 show.

[hdnfactbox title=”The Photo Regionals”]

• The Capital District Photo Regionals is an annual gallery show that features the area’s top photographers.
• The event rotates between the Photo Center of the Capital District, the Opalka Gallery, and this year’s host, the Albany Center Gallery.
• Chuck Miller has had two entries make the walls of the Photo Regionals; The Jumbuck in 2014; and Vivaldi’s Pond in 2016.[/hdnfactbox]

For years, getting my artworks into the Photo Regionals was harder than getting Taylor Swift concert tickets.  Then, in 2014, my photo of an Icelandic sheep, The Jumbuck, rammed its way through.  Two years later, my lenticular print of the four seasons in the Adirondacks, Vivaldi’s Pond, made it to the walls as well.

Whatever pictures don’t make the cut this year … I’m okay.  No, really, I’m okay.  I mean, The Heavens Above, The Forest Below already took three ribbons in competition last year, including a blue at the Big E Photography Show.  And Step and Pivot and Faith and Frost have plenty of opportunities to be shown in competition in 2017.  So it’s not the end of the world if I take three pictures home next week.

I gave it my best.  No excuses.  Bad stuff happened to me in the past twelve months?  Bad stuff happens to everybody.

So yesterday, I went to the Opening Night gala at the Albany Center Gallery.  All the pictures were carefully mounted and displayed, and it’s really an amazing sight.  Oh and by the way … you really need to check out Albany Center Gallery’s new digs in the Arcade Building on Broadway.  Definitely an upgrade.

There were over 300 different photos on display at the gallery – portraits and landscapes and experimentals and conceptuals, all taken by the Capital District’s most talented and adventurous photographers.

This is cool.

Along with the gallery show, there’s a printed portfolio featuring all the entries, their purchaseable value, and whether or not they were accepted into the overall show that runs past the one-week salon period.

Again … total coolness.

I’m looking for my name on the printed portfolio.

I can’t find my name.

It took me a few minutes to realize that the listings aren’t alphabetical – they were listed by time of dropoff.  And since I dropped off my three pieces early in the acceptance period … oh forget it, you don’t care about where I was listed in the portfolio, you just want to know if any of my three are staying past the one-week salon period.

There was no asterisk beside The Heavens Above, The Forest Below – that’s okay, as I said before, it’s already claimed three ribbons in 2016, I’m good with it.

There was no asterisk beside Faith and Frost – again, that’s okay, there’s plenty of opportunities for this picture to receive some love.

There was an asterisk beside Step and Pivot – oh well, I went oh-for-three, gotta dust off my tears and continue on …

Wait.

Wait…

Did I just say there was an asterisk beside the listing for Step and Pivot in the portfolio?

I looked again.

That’s an asterisk.

A quick glance at the physical entry hanging on the wall of the Albany Center Gallery and …

Sweet tap-dancing Colonie Shoe Repair, there’s a yellow dot in the upper right corner next to my picture – which means that next week, when I pick up my other two photos from the show, Step and Pivot gets to stay!!

It made it through!  Step and Pivot made it through!!  Look at that yellow dot!!

Step and Pivot now joins The Jumbuck and Vivaldi’s Pond as accepted entrants into the Capital District Photo Regionals!!!

WOO HOO!!!

And what makes this even sweeter for me …

This is the first Chuck Miller accepted Photo Regionals entry that WASN’T shown previously during a Competition Season.  In fact, the only time this picture even made it out of my house was a showing at the Photo Center of Troy as part of a group show.

HOLLA AT YOUR MAN!!!

Man oh man, I remember taking that picture … in the middle of the night … five degrees below zero … my foot still broken and me trying to hobble around the outside of a Central Avenue cobbler shop… that photograph, built off of experimental tests of shooting neon on other nights … photos like Shoe Repair and The Zipless Chuck and a dozen other pictures that I didn’t bother blogging about, because I knew I could do better …

Okay, okay, I gotta get a selfie with my artwork.  Hey, I’m allowed, right?

Freakin’ super awesome.

And in my mind, I’m thinking about how this picture isn’t done.  Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Man oh man, 2017 is starting off great.

And the year is only a few months old.