PhotoSafar.com.my jointly with Photomalaysia organised the 1st Guerrilla Photography Exhibition in Malaysia.
The day started at around 8am where the participants were briefed on various aspects of the exhibition. Mr Murali did a roll call of the participants and off they go to put up their respective prints on their assigned boards. Blu tacks and thumb tacks where handed out by our sponsors, Schmidt Marketing and Leica Store.
That exercise took more than 2 hours with each participant trying to create a very enticing display within their display space. Some filled their boards with 1 large print while some more than 20 small prints. There was festive in the air with some participants helping each other to put up the displays.
By and large the work was done a few minutes after 10am. Participants then mingled with early visitors to the exhibition to admire the work of other exhibitors or chat with fellow participants.
By around 10.45am, the participants adjourned to a tea reception (teh tarik) at Leica Store. This was a good time to deliver some light hearted speeches by the Organisers and Sponsors.
A small recording team led by Mr Ted Adnan went on to interview some of the participants. You can view the time lapsed video on the setting up of the exhibition and the interviews.
What was the take home message?
It was a bold move by the Organisers of this event. By doing away with a Curator for the Exhibition, participants were forced to curate the photos and displays themselves. I believed most participants would have spent a considerable amount of time trying to put the show together. This exercise forced participants to be more creative and built up their self-confidence on this newly found visual freedom.
Overall result, this Exhibition was really interesting and has a wide breadth of subjects and styles. Even the presentation formats vary from each Exhibitor. Each participant displayed some awesome stuff not seen in a traditional photo exhibition. This was the most interesting and engaging exhibition that I have organised so far and I would find it very hard to up the ante.
The winners this time must be the Exhibitors. For those who are still sitting on the fence, would you dare to be a GUERRILLA PHOTOGRAPHER?
Time lapsed video on the preparation.
Interview with some of the Exhibitors.