Exhibiting: Defenceless

Reflecting on the experience

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We have hung pictures together in cafes, restaurants and local group exhibitions several times prior to this, but Defenceless was our first major exhibition in a dedicated Photography Gallery.

Because we have been colleagues, business partners and, latterly, creative partners for so long, we had none of the difficulties of forming a collaborative partnership which some joint ventures might experience. So much is taken as read - so many ground rules established and protocols unspoken. However, it is clear that a creative partnership is quite different from a business one. Whilst we have no problem whatsoever when we critique each others' work - we do it all the time - it would be a bland partnership indeed if there was no contrast in style, approach and aesthetic sensibility: these are the areas which are vulnerable to difficulty when mounting a collaborative show.

Our initial visions of how the hanging would look, from the intricacies of mounting to overall 'look and feel', were alarmingly similar but had enough differences to need debate and clarification. Two creative people cannot think completely alike unless they are clones. Whilst the overall hanging was a cohesive presentation of our joint work, there was still plenty of scope for our individual interpretations of the subject matter. (We found great amusement in watching visitors who were known to us trying to guess who had taken which photograph - we may have individual styles and preferred subject matter, but we managed to defy the stereotypes quite successfully!)

At one point a day or two after we had hung the show, one of us became quite despondent and suffered a huge crisis of confidence (triggered by the flawed hanging system which resulted in us arriving at the gallery to find two pictures on the floor). Being out of one's comfort zone, in an alien context and yet still baring one's soul to the world by offering work up for public scrutiny, it is easy to lose faith and believe that the whole thing is a disaster. It took some time to get over that, and to be convinced that it was, after all, a good show. With hindsight, we know it was a good show - we have the feedback to prove it.

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