POV: 5 Days, 2231 Views And Counting | Exposure
I've very recently became an Exposure platform full fledged subscriber, and uploaded a few of my photo essays.
For those who don't know, or who haven't followed my recent blog posts, Exposure is aimed at photographers who are looking to publish their photographs as part of a more meaningful narrative.
It's designed and built to feature large (edge to edge of your computer monitor) photos, and it places these photographs in neat layouts with various presets to choose from.
But that's not the only reason behind this post. Just take a look at the screen grab above. I published Hà Nội Noir on December 10, 2014...and it received 2231 views already, and this number will be higher by the time this post gets published....so it averaged about 450 views a day. I'd say that it's a pretty decent view count for this sort of photo essay.
How did it get there? Well, I promoted it on this blog, on my Facebook page and on Twitter (where it was retweeted a few times by others), and it was chosen as Staff Picks by the nice people at Exposure.
I never understood the commercial reasoning of photographers who spend fistfuls of money to mount exhibitions to enhance their visibility. Printing costs, matting and framing costs, marketing, gallery rental and ancillary expenses probably reach thousands of dollars, and I doubt galleries will attract, or have the space for, that many viewers over the same number of days. Sure, there is the tactility of exhibition prints...the social aspect of meeting like-minded people....the excitement....the ego trip...of having one's prints on walls, and admired by many.
But absent of a healthy bank account, a friend-gallery owner, and/or a marquee name, web platforms such as Exposure, Medium, Storehouse and Cowbird will offer photographers a worthwhile venue for their work, to supplement their own websites.