As an artist donating items to fundraisers can be difficult. The question becomes; Will anyone be interested in my art enough to display it in their homes? Or will my art not draw enough attention to help in the fundraiser.
This came up for me back in September. I was asked to be a vender for a quarter auction fundraiser however the date it was slated to take place I was already booked and thus did not have the availability to be a vender but I was willing to donate a few images for them to auction off.
Yet, I had no idea which of my work to donate. I am primarily an equine photographer and most of my work is events or client booked sessions. I do photograph other things such as flowers, landscapes, seascapes, insects, portraits, and more in my limited free time or most accurately on my vacations.
I have so many photos that just the idea of attempting to figure out what would interest anyone was overwhelming. Picking personal favorites isn’t really the best route to go because I barely have space to display my work in my own home so I don’t even have prints of my favorite works. So I selected some 30 odd images and sent them out to family and friends and told them to pick their top three favorites hoping there’d be enough overlap to narrow it down.
Ultimately I donated four framed, signed images for this fundraiser and was even able to attend as my previous event was cancelled. It was a fun day and I was incredibly honored by the people who bid on a chance to win my images and the general praise I received for them.
So congrats to my winners. Check the video below showing the images selected and printed for this fundraiser. Three images have honors from various international photography competitions from honorable mentions to being digitally displayed in the Louvre.