Photography Foundation Christmas Fair and Gathering

I recently took part in a photography community gathering and fair, after seeing a call for stall-holder participants on social media. I haven’t done much in the way of in person sales with my zines, books, and prints, as this kind of marketplace has not been too common since Covid-19 shifted everything online. I thought it would be a nice social, and a good bit of market research to see how it would go, without too much on the line in terms of cost.

I know of the Photography Foundation from their grants and other community centred projects, but had not had much contact with the organisation outside of maybe a few social media exchanges, not something in person. After they confirmed I would be able to join with my products I went to the library to print some signage and table decorations so that it wouldn’t just be piles of books.

I enjoyed the presentation aspect, deciding I may as well have fun with it and stand out a bit with some ice-breakers to bring people over and start a conversation. This worked, and there were some fun moments and laughs over it all. It was nice meeting people, which is mainly what the event was about, not quite networking but just hanging out sharing the space and seeing what people were working on.

There were plenty of books and magazines on sale, as well as camera equipment. One of the stallholders was a seller on the website Depop, selling film and instant cameras there. Another had brought hand finished prints, and was still working on trimming some of the frames as she sat at her table.

I sold a few copies of the publications I’d brought, but didn’t take any pre-orders of my winter collection, which is the main product I’m really pushing at the moment. Not the worst though, I went without expectations, so the fact anything sold at all was nice.

I think face to face sales for items like these, effectively art/philosophy/documentary products is tricky, and not common in intimate spaces like this. Larger trade shows may be a better situation for footfall, but this wasn’t about numbers it was more social and friendly, not a sales event. It was good practice and a test of the waters if I were to ever attend something larger and take it more seriously.