9.08.2009

this past weekend i went to the noorderlicht photo festival in groningen.  i went there not only because i am a photography enthusiast, but also because one of my images is in a show there.  in general it was a good experience, but i felt kind of weird being there.  first of all, the noorderlicht gallery was generous enough to offer us a hotel room so we could stay overnight.  this was surprising to me since i am such a small part of the show, but i gladly accepted.  when we got to groningen, we checked in, and then went about looking for photo festival people and activities.  that proved to be sort of difficult.  we went to the galleries where things were happening, but i never encountered anyone who was in charge, and i felt like i was in a ghost world watching things happen in the living world around me.  the main exhibit hall was a church, and it was densely populated with fancy photo people with festival badges and the large groups of photo buddies they were hanging around with.  marleen and i were just kind of walking around trying to look at pictures.  we decided to skip out on the festival dinner and get dinner by ourselves because it would have been too awkward to try to ease into the cool kid photo clubhouse.
i'm glad we did that.
after dinner and a lengthy walk around groningen we went back the hotel for a sound sleep.  in the morning there was a package with a festival badge and all kinds of useful festival information at my door.  i really wish i had gotten this package when i checked in.  i think it would have made things a lot easier for me, and i would not have felt so much like an alien.  so…  day two was a little better.  i had my badge, i saw lots of pictures, i got a free catalogue of the show, and felt a little better about everything in the world.  then i went home.

best,
jim

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