I have recovered from the shock of putting up my portraits only to have to endure people just... walking by them like they didn't exist. Over time now, it has slowly become clear that my pictures are an attraction for people and that, despite that weird first couple of hours, I can regularly find people checking out my co-worker portraits with anywhere from fleeting to active interest.
Toddlers in particular like them, but that's a story for another time.
So after a couple of days I was actually feeling pretty good about my show. Look at me, I have made art and people actually look at it!
So that's... cool.
But you know the Universe, it simply can't stop self-correcting.
There are two theories to this.
Either the Universe is an asshole or..
It's built on a fulcrum.
There might be more than two theories, actually.
Anyway, I was making some lunch in the breakroom, a patty melt if you're curious. An old librarian who's a newer branch manager came in. They used to be good at their job. Now they're a manager. They said "I had a staff member write me and express concern about people's pictures being publicly displayed and how they might not want that. So I wanted to check in and see what kind of permissions you got."
"Let me get this straight." I said. "A staff member who is not in this show is concerned that someone, who is in the show, hypothetically, will be upset by it?"
The manager affirmed this.
I explained that I told all the people when I photographed them the same thing I told this manager when I photographed them (this manager is in my show)- that I was going to add in their animal and eventually I would probably have some kind of show or more public display of them when I was done with it all, and if they wanted to take part I would need to take their picture.
The manager said that's what they thought, but because of this message from another staff member they wanted to check.
I said I understood their perspective, but that the person raising concerns should have received far less consideration and was, frankly, up to no good.
The manager said that they thought the person raising concern was doing it from a good place.
I said we would have to agree to disagree then.
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