#6: the gallery showing

i'm hoping to blog about as many of the 101 in 1001 items as possible, partly in an attempt to work on my storytelling skills, and partly just as proof.

i admit, i put this item on my 101 Things in 1001 Days list with full knowledge that it could happen soon.  a while back, i joined the DC Birthright Israel alumni group on facebook.  now i get all sorts of invitations to events happening within the Jewish community, especially ones geared towards young professionals. 

a few weeks ago, i got an invite to this gallery showing event, The Second Annual Israel Scene.  little ole' me got all sad, thinking "crap.  i missed an opportunity to show off my own Israel photos."  then i read the fine print.  this was a request for photos!  holy moly and little fishes, i might be able to get my photos shown after all!

at the time of my trip (now two years ago, almost to the day), my only digital camera was my old D1x, a beast of a camera with terrible battery life.  so, in honor of the importance of the trip (and to save my hands from carrying that thing), i shot film.  great for archiving, terrible for submitting to gallery showings looking for high resolution files.  i was a little worried my low-res files wouldn't be acceptable, and they'd exclude me on principle.

lo and behold, a few emails and posts on facebook later, everything is cleared up and i'm submitting 12 photos to the show.  which ones, you ask?  why, these!

01 - General Street Scene, Tel Aviv
02 - Fabric vendor in outdoor market, Tel Aviv
03 - "Contemplation" - a desert trail, just north of Eilat
04 - Street view in Jerusalem
05 - the Holocaust Museum
06 - "The World Awaits" - Holocaust museum
07 - General view from the exit of the Holocaust Museum
08 - "Nose" - at the Bedouin camp
09 - General view of the path at Nachal Gov
10 - "Freedom" - Nachal Gov, featuring two Israeli soldiers
11 - "To The Sky We Rise" - Nachal Gov
12 - General view in Jerusalem in the rain, featuring locals and a security guard

now here's the best part.  i sent an email to the contact on the facebook page, since i hadn't heard anything about selections being made.  she replied back, almost immediately, saying that they loved my photos and a bunch have been selected!  i'm still waiting to hear which ones, but i'll be sure to either update this post or write an update post about it. 

if you're in the DC area, the gallery opening is on February 7th from 6:30-8:30pm at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue.  the event is also an auction, with proceeds benefiting "an afterschool program for 4 th and 5th grade Ethiopian Israelis in Beit Shemesh. the money raised will help to purchase cultural arts supplies for the program." 

spiffy, huh!

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but wait...

there's a part two to this post!  tonight, i also submitted three photographs to the DCist Exposed 2008 gallery showing.  although the announcement was made weeks ago about the show, i didn't submit my photos until about 10 minutes before the deadline.  while that wasn't the greatest idea, one of my photos ended up being the second to last photo accepted . . .  giving that photo (and subsequently my entire photostream) primo exposure on the homepage for the event's flickr group.

here are the photos (all from project365) that i've submitted.  take a look at the pool of photos in the link above, and you'll see that i have a very small chance of being selected.  i do, however, feel really good that i was able to submit in the first place.  i'll work on better submissions for next year.

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