The Baltimore Creative Slideshow
What, When, Why and How.
By Dennis Drenner on 31 Mar 2019
in Odds and Ends
This post is all about the Baltimore Creative Slideshow, an event I host a few times a year for creatives to hang out and share work. Skip to the bottom if you just want the details and don’t want to hear my life story! To sign up for the mailing list to learn about upcoming events, please go to this link: Signup Form.
Background: Nick's Famous Party
Years ago I went to a party that National Geographic photographer Nick Nichols was holding in his backyard in Charlottesville. The annual events were famously fun, and organized around a simple concept: You would show up at his house in the late afternoon, throw 20 slides into a carousel and then hang out and drink beer. When the sun went down, they would turn on the projector in the backyard and start looking at photos. In the crowd was a mix of everyone from photography legends like Sally Man and David Alley Harvey to the next door neighbor showing vacation photos.
Nick is an unpretentious and charming character from Alabama, and all were welcome. Despite the legends of the art world prowling the backyard, there was no ego, no formal presentations, just a bunch of people who like photography talking about their work and telling stories.
photo by Chris Myers: http://www.cmyersphotographs.com/
Despite the friendly vibes, I was a young photographer at the time and scared shitless. I prayed that I wouldn’t have to follow a Nat Geo photographer and showing his latest amazing images from Africa. My turn finally came (not after a legend thankfully) and I showed a photo series I had done in a Baltimore dive bar. After I finished David Allan Harvey walked across the lawn, slapped me hard on the back and told me he liked my work. It was a great moment for me and my spirit floated off into the Virginia night. (Later I was rejected by Dave Matthew's cute cousin from South Africa, which brought me back down to earth. Oh well.)
The Baltimore Creative Slideshow is my attempt to recreate Nick’s parties here in Baltimore. So a few times per year I get creative people together look at photos and videos. While the crowd skews towards photographers, everyone from painters to potters is welcome! If you have creative work you want to share, or just want to look— please come!
photo by Sean Scheidt: http://www.seanscheidt.com/
THE DETAILS : WHERE, WHEN, and WHAT TO BRING
The next event will be held on April 11th at 3500 Parkdale Ave (3rd Floor, Studio 13) Baltimore, MD 21211 (it’s giant former sail factory, three stories tall made of brick. You can’t miss it.) Doors open at 6pm for drinks and mingling. I will fire up the projector around 730pm.
Park on the street or in the parking lot on the north side of building. The main entrance faces Parkdale Avenue and has two blue doors. Go in, take the elevator to the third floor, and walk down the long hall to studio 13. If you have any trouble getting in, please call me at 301-437-6972.
Bring your work on a thumb drive and I’ll load it onto my laptop while folks mingle. (You can email me a gallery before the event too, but please make sure it’s something where I can click a single link and download all your images at once).
Not sure which projector I will have that evening, but I’d size images about 2000 pixels on the horizontal side to be safe. Please bring something to drink or munch on.
photo by Michelle Frankfurter: http://www.michellefrankfurterphotos.com
photo by Michael Bonfigli: http://www.mbonfigli.com/
