From the art market to creative fungi: panels at Art Basel Miami Beach

Nov 24, 2023 By Admin in Art World News

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During Art Basel Miami Beach, the city is transformed into a hotbed for art deals and debates. Art Basel’s Conversations programme this year brings together 30 cultural experts to discuss topics from international art markets to creative fungi that shed light on local art scenes as well as some of the pressing questions facing the industry.

This year the programme has a special emphasis on Latin America. A talk from artist and teacher María Magdalena Campos-Pons, whose spiritual multimedia works draw on her Afro-Cuban roots, traces her 40-year trajectory from the Cuban countryside to her current retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

Photo of a woman in a simple red dress against a black background. The photo is embroidered with red thread on her hair — ‘Red Composition’ (detail) (1997) by María Magdalena Campos-Pons © María Magdalena Campos-Pons. Photo: courtesy the artist

In Collecting in Brazil, a panel of collectors and gallerists look at the continent’s largest art market in light of the government’s new commitment to the arts, following last year’s election of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “The change of government seems to be giving Brazilian art a renewed momentum,” says panellist Luisa Strina, founder of Galeria Luisa Strina in São Paulo, who sees this as an exciting time for the country’s art market as it has “still plenty of room for growth”.

The programme also looks closer to home. Figures representing Florida’s dynamic non-profit art spaces, such as Bakehouse Art Complex and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, come together to discuss the importance of artist residencies in fostering local talent. The state’s ecosystem is also the subject of From Supercontinents to Florida, which explores artistic responses to this unique ecology, climate change and the impact of technology.

A man in a blue jacket sits on gnarled tree roots — Artist James Bridle, who is talking about art using the natural world

Science also goes under the microscope in Biohacking Creativity as artists Xin Liu, Eduardo Kac and James Bridle consider the implications of artworks that use non-human species such as bacteria, fungi and viruses as collaborative agents. Found in Translation, meanwhile, looks at whether we can use different forms of knowledge and language, such as pre-Hispanic dances, to reconstruct lost histories.

Finally, Renewing the Institution brings together experts from newly opened or redesigned US art museums to share how they are finding innovative ways to engage with audiences and create institutions for current times.

“Public education is a museum’s superpower, we are one of the last places on earth where you can learn in public and not be judged,” says speaker Tonya M Matthews, president of the International African American Museum in Charleston, which opened in June after two decades of planning. “We must grow in our ways of thinking, reckoning and reconciling our past and our present as we expand into our future. That’s why museums must fill in the gaps that expand the narrative.”

The Conversations programme runs December 7-9, artbasel.com

How Allapattah became the centre of Miami’s art scene

Nov 24, 2023 By Admin in Art World News

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On a warm Miami night in early November this year, the opening of Katia David Rosenthal’s new gallery, KDR, which had just moved from Little Havana to the industrial neighbourhood of Allapattah, was joyously crowded. People drank and chatted at the reception, enjoying the autumn weather, as breezes stirred the palm trees and wild chickens, a normal part of the landscape, looked for appetiser crumbs.

Don and Mera Rubell, Miami’s influential contemporary-art collectors, hugged Max Voloshyn, who, with his wife, Julia, had just launched their gallery Voloshyn on the same block, featuring eastern European art. “We are about to have four art galleries lined up,” said Andrew Reed, owner of Andrew Reed Gallery, which also shares the block with Mindy Solomon Gallery. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this here.” Soon afterwards, La Cometa gallery also launched in the neighbourhood.

A woman in white and a man in black stand in front of a large blue sculpture — Julia and Max Voloshyn of Voloshyn Gallery

Allapattah has been touted as Miami’s next art-world hotspot since at least 2019, when the Rubells opened the Rubell Museum to show their collection. The same year, developer Jorge Pérez, chair of the Related Group and principal private donor to the Pérez Art Museum Miami, inaugurated his contemporary art space, El Espacio 23, in the area. Marquez Arts Projects and immersive extravaganza Superblue also reside there. As Art Basel Miami Beach brings even more art to the city in early December, Allapattah has become a standout district.

People take selfies in front of a large black and white photographic mural crowded with figures — ‘The Chronicles of Miami’ by JR, which premieres at Superblue during Miami Art Week © Oriol Tarridas

Much has changed since the first artist-run spaces and commercial galleries opened in Miami in the Eighties and Nineties. Bakehouse Art Complex, Locust Projects and Dimensions Variable all started in the neighbourhood of Wynwood, along with BFI in the Design District, Diaspora Vibe in Little Haiti and Oolite Arts in Miami Beach. Art Basel may have helped shape a cultural ecosystem in Miami but Miami’s people have, without a doubt, made it an art beacon in its own right.

Before buying an old warehouse in Wynwood in 2000, Brook Dorsch, who now co-runs Emerson Dorsch, operated an art gallery from his own walk-up apartment. It was an inspiration, says Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, who co-founded Dimensions Variable with Frances Trombly: “His first apartment had all the windows drywalled, and he lived in the bedroom while the rest of the space was all walls, and that’s where he was showing exhibitions. I remember thinking, this guy is insane.

“The city was full of artists who took it upon themselves to create something new. That energy left a huge impression on me and what I do today,” he adds. This year, a book, an exhibition at Dimensions Variable (December 6-26) and a digital archive, all titled Making Miami, will tell the story of those artists who worked and made the city’s art community from 1996 to 2012.

Orange lilies very close up with the sea in the distance — ‘On the Shoreline Before the Setting Sun’ by Kate Bickmore at Andrew Reed Gallery © Courtesy the artist/gallery

To survive Miami’s rising housing costs, most art spaces and commercial galleries had to move neighbourhoods through the years, from Wynwood (rebranded as the Arts District in the early 2000s) to Little Haiti, Little River or Allapattah, chasing affordable housing as the city continued to grow, change and gentrify. Wherever artists go, real estate value also goes up: after the inception of Art Basel Miami Beach in 2002, developers saw the value in Wynwood and started buying warehouse buildings. Gentrification happened so fast that, by 2015, most artists and the working-class community were priced out.

“The city was overflowing with artists, but it was hard to find a decent place to rent,” says Rodriguez-Casanova, who thinks the city is in a similar spot today: Miami has officially become the least affordable housing market in the country. Most non-profits that offered free studio spaces to artists have had to change their model or start charging modest rates. For Lorie Mertes, executive director of Locust Projects, “It is difficult to see how our city becomes less affordable to sustain the cultural and economic diversity that makes us so exciting.”

A smiling woman with long brown hair — Mindy Solomon of Mindy Solomon Gallery © Monica McGivern

Since 2017, Mindy Solomon has co-organised Progressive Art Brunch, a programme where art dealers open to the public several Sundays throughout the year for gallery-hopping. “It started as a conversation between myself and Tyler Dorsch, who co-founded Emerson Dorsch Gallery, during our long walks together thinking about the arts community and ways that we could grow and bring more people in,” Solomon says. Dainy Tapia, the creator of ArtSeen 365 on social media, shares information daily about every contemporary art show in Miami and south Florida.

But can the city’s own scene be self-supporting as it expands? To Fredric Snitzer, who opened in 1977, more people must engage with art for galleries to thrive outside of Miami Art Week. “I want the city to be a hotbed of collectors and enthusiasm all year round. But I just don’t see it yet,” he says. But Dejha Carrington, co-founder and executive director of Commissioner, a local organisation that empowers Miamians to collect art and support artists, remains optimistic. “We want to break access barriers and debunk the idea that a collector looks a certain way and is wealthy,” she says. “When someone who has never collected art acquires their first piece, it’s magic.”

Guatemala’s Proyectos Ultravioleta gallery offers new models for the art market

Nov 24, 2023 By Admin in Native

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The reputation of Proyectos Ultravioleta in the international art world far outstrips the number of people who have actually set foot in the gallery in Guatemala City.

“We’re committed to doing shows that really resonate with a local scene and often the work is not for sale and, more often than not, even if it is for sale, nobody buys it,” says director Stefan Benchoam, 40, of the space, its home a tiled warehouse in the shadow of the country’s national stadium. “There’s not a lot of collectors within Guatemala.”

Instead, this local programme is funded by a prodigious schedule of international art fairs, including the upcoming Art Basel Miami Beach, with booths that have won prizes and recognition. “We came to this brutal realisation that, whether we like them or not, art fairs are one of the major gathering places for all sorts of art professionals and enthusiasts, so we approach each booth as an exhibition.”

Three semicircles and one rectangle turn around a central point. They are painted yellow, green and white — ‘Study for Rearranging the Subtropical Conference Table #1’ (2021) by Amalia Pica © Courtesy the artist and Proyectos Ultravioleta. Photo by Margo Porres

The gallery was born in 2009 out of the frustrations of a group of four artists, including Benchoam. “We realised we were becoming those bitter guys sitting among themselves complaining how they’re all sad and bummed out that we didn’t have space to show our work.” Instead, they wrote a list of their shared resources, whether it was that one owned a projector, or another could drive, and searched out premises among the gridded streets of Guatemala City’s central district. Their idea was to pay the rent by selling beer at parties after each exhibition opening. “It was a good model for maybe nine or 10 months, until the parties became too big.”

Watercolour of orange, red and purple waving stripes — Untitled by Vivian Suter © Courtesy the artist and Proyectos Ultravioleta. Photo by Margo Porres

They survived for a few years longer on a grant from a Dutch foundation before, in 2012, they took part in the Artissima fair in Turin, followed by Liste in Basel. The gallery started to represent artists, including the political performance artist Regina José Galindo, Argentine conceptualist Amalia Pica and Vivian Suter, the Swiss-raised painter who has worked unrecognised in a tiny Guatemalan town but has experienced a recent boom in institutional and commercial acclaim.

Last year the gallery was accepted into the Swiss edition of Art Basel for the first time, and at Art Basel Miami Beach it will show a series of paintings by Puerto Rican artist Radamés “Juni” Figueroa. Known for playing with clichés of the Caribbean, Figueroa has painted a day in the life of two brothers who hunt caiman, crocodile-like animals which are non-native to the island and descend from a time in the 1960s when they were sold as pets. “There’s always a lot of humour in Juni’s work, but it has very strong political undertones,” Benochoam says.

Painting of a man in a blue polo shirt holding a miniature alligator — ‘Don Cheo, Ojos de Caimán’ (2023) by Radamés ‘Juni’ Figueroa © Courtesy the artist and Proyectos Ultravioleta. Photo by Raquel Pérez Puig

Given that the Guatemalan art scene is relatively unknown in Europe and North America, is there a novelty factor for people coming to his booth? “It goes both ways, right? I think there are people who are genuinely curious to get to know either Guatemalan artists, or a gallery that’s not from one of the usual art centres. At the same time, especially with collectors in the top echelon, there are some biases that don’t necessarily work in our favour. They want what they deem to be a safe place to invest in with work, or deal with a place they are familiar with.”

Some institutions are willing to embrace the unfamiliar. At Frieze London in 2021 the gallery showed “Ru k’ ox k’ob’el jun ojer etemab’el” (“The Echo of an Ancient Form of Knowledge”) by Edgar Calel, an Indigenous Maya Kaqchikel artist, which features two dozen rocks on which lay fruit and other offerings to ancestors. (Within the Mayan cosmology there is a belief that our ancestors, when they die, live within stones.)

“It’s really somewhere between a sculpture and a ritual,” Benchoam says. “There is an actual offering that Edgar conducts, in which he thanks them for the opportunity to tread the earth and for the wisdom and knowledge that they gave us.”

An art fair booth with 20-odd rocks on the floor and pieces of fruit on top of them — Tate’s purchase of ‘Ru k’ox k’ob’el jun ojer etemab’el’ (‘The Echo of an Ancient Form of Knowledge’) (2021) by Edgar Calel involved a unique arrangement © Courtesy the artist and Proyectos Ultravioleta. Photo by Benjamin Deaking

Tate showed an interest in buying his work. “We offered them some works on paper based on the piece, but the installation itself — how do we sell this? It comes from a completely different epistemology. No one person owns these sacred objects or the knowledge that goes into it. It’s not for Edgar or us to sell, it belongs to the Mayan community, handed from generation to generation.”

Tate, however, had already been discussing how to bring other Indigenous works with similar sensitivities into the collection. After protracted negotiation the gallery and institution came up with the idea of a groundbreaking custodianship deal in which Tate paid both Calel and his community of Chi Xot for the rights to show the work for 13 years. This can be renegotiated after that period, or the work will be left to disintegrate. It was praised as a major decolonial shift in the power balance between institutions and non-western artists.

Benchoam still thinks of himself as an artist, which he says helps him negotiate such tricky circumstances. But he says he hasn’t made work in years. “It’s a conceptual thing now, about how I approach the programme. I like to get as close as possible to the practice of the artists, so it’s not just the transactional relationship. The gallery is really about continuing the conversation that started it.”

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Designer Samuel Ross: ‘I love that red-hot line between sculpture and furniture’

Nov 24, 2023 By Admin in Sculpture

The polymathic Londoner has created everything from watches and taps to paintings shown at White Cube

Holly Jolly Weekend returns to Latrobe with holiday night market, live reindeer

Nov 24, 2023 By Admin in Art World News

Latrobe Art Center’s annual Holly Jolly Weekend returns this year from Nov. 30 through Dec. 2, featuring numerous holiday-themed events, activities and entertainment for the whole family.

Kicking off the festivities will be the Latrobe Light Up Night and holiday night market from 5:30-8 p.m. on Nov. 30 in James H. Rogers Memorial Park and Main Street. The night will include a live performance by the Holiday Harmonies Christmas Carolers at 5:45 p.m. and a welcome by Mayor Eric Bartels and the community tree lighting at 7 p.m.

During Light Up Night, families can visit with Santa’s live reindeer for the first time, visit the Holiday Neighborhood Trolley, participate in arts and crafts hosted by the Latrobe Art Center or get photos with Santa at Maria Mejia Photography Studio.

There will also be a holiday open house and mulled cider tasting at The Paper Heart, a holiday apples special at Terri’s Gourmet Sweet Treats and a holiday special and sweet treats at the Mangata Massage and Holistic Practices and Peace Yoga Studio. Free holiday hair tinsel and more will be available at Clips on Mane.

The Paper Heart’s second annual Holly Jolly Jingle Ball for those 21 or older will take place from 6-9 p.m. on Dec. 1, including a Pasqualino’s Italian dinner, drinks, music bingo, holiday-themed games with prizes, dancing and more.

Tickets for the Jingle Ball are $45 and can be purchased online at paperheartaffairs.com. They can also be purchased by calling 724-230-4400 or stopping in the store.

Saturday’s lineup

Santa Claus will visit Latrobe from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Dec. 2 for a Party in the Park. Mrs. Claus will be reading to children about the same time at the Adams Memorial Library.

Also on Saturday will be the Latrobe Farmer’s Market from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 810 Ligonier St., featuring seasonal items from various artisans.

Other Saturday activities around downtown include letters to Santa, barrel train rides, make your own holiday trail mix with WQED, holiday arts and crafts, grab-and-go reindeer food kits, DIY Advent calendars and cookie decorating. Specific details and locations can be found online.

There will be live entertainment at the Main Street and Ligonier Street intersection Saturday, with music by DJ Dark Shark from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Specific acts include the CDT School chorus and musicians at 10:30 a.m., the East End Kids’ holiday show at 11 a.m., Greater Latrobe High School choral ensemble at noon, the Hometown Arts Troupe at 12:45 p.m., the Laurel Valley Academy of Dance at 1:30 p.m. and Diamond Doll Twirling at 2:15 p.m.

A holiday magic show with magician Steve Haberman will be offered at 11:30 a.m. at Westmoreland County Community College’s Latrobe campus.

Throughout the weekend

New or gently used children’s books and board games can be dropped off at the Greater Latrobe-Laurel Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce before Nov. 30 for the book and board game drive during the weekend. They will be available for distribution from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Dec. 2.

Attendees can cast votes in the gingerbread house contest from 8 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 30 and between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Nov. 2 — also located at WCCC’s Latrobe campus. Entry forms must be turned in no later than Nov. 22, and more information can be found here.

The Holiday Artist Market will be open during the entire weekend in the Latrobe Art Center as well. It will run through Dec. 23, according to Latrobe Art Center Executive Director Michael Tusay.

Food and beverage vendors for the weekend will include Travelin’ Tom’s Coffee Truck, Miley’s Lemonade Smashers, Shanty Ridge BBQ, Simply the Best Kettle Corn, Chick-fil-A, JoJo’s Snack Shack and Baked Goods, and Big Black Grill.

Throughout the weekend, there will be a merchant raffle for anyone holiday shopping downtown. Participating merchants will have gingerbread “shop local” vinyl signs in their windows. For every item purchased, shoppers will get at least one raffle ticket, and winners will be drawn Dec. 4.

Megan Swift is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 724-850-1204, mswift@triblive.com or via Twitter .

SEO for photographers: 7 tips you can use today

Nov 24, 2023 By Admin in Photography

Here’s the thing, they don’t really teach SEO in school, do they? You can read about SEO until you’re blue in the face, but the real learning? That happens when you’re actually in the trenches, optimizing websites, figuring out what clicks and what flops.You’ve probably heard stuff like “do this for SEO” and “do that for SEO” all the time, right? And there you are, trying it out, but kinda wondering, “Is this actually doing anything? Why am I even doing this?” Trust me, you’re not the only one thinking this.

The best way to get the hang of SEO? Start your own website. Build it from the ground up, try to grow it organically. That’s the real deal.

Guess what? I’ve been there, done that. I’ve grown a bunch of sites: an EDM site, a candle site, and even a streetwear site. In fact, I rank #1 if not top 5 for many photography-related keywords. Here are just a few:

My Article Ranking #1 for “what is a speedlight”

My Article Ranking #2 for “business headshot tips”

My Article Ranking #1 for “what is portrait photography”

Having said that, I would like to offer seven straightforward SEO strategies for photographers that you can easily apply to your photography website right away.

More of a visual learner? Check out the video version:

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Nate Torres on YouTube

7 SEO tips for photographers

1. Use HTTPS

First on the list of SEO tips for photographers: ensure your website is using HTTPS. But what is HTTPS? It stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. This is simply a more secure version of the older HTTP, enhanced with SSL/TLS encryption and authentication.

Let’s bypass the technical jargon. The crucial point is that HTTPS increases your site’s security, and search engines favor secure sites. This can boost your website’s ranking for photography-related keywords. Curious if your site has HTTPS? Just visit an SSL Checker website, enter your URL, and check for an SSL certificate. Here’s an example from when I checked my own site, showing it’s secure:

If your site lacks an SSL certificate, contact your web hosting provider. Many photography websites are hosted on platforms like SiteGround, Bluehost, or GoDaddy. For obtaining an SSL certificate, here are some useful links depending on your host:

If you’re using a different hosting service, simply search for your provider followed by “ssl instructions” to find a guide on adding it.

2. Use CDN

The next SEO tip for photographers: Verify whether you have a CDN, which means Content Delivery Network. Why is this important? A CDN can significantly improve your photography website’s page loading speed, which is a key factor for SEO success. CDNs work as a network of servers that enhance your SEO by, quickly delivering content to your visitors, boosting your website’s overall speed, and protecting against online security threats.

Wondering if your website is already using a CDN? You can easily check this with a CDN Checker Tool. For example, when I checked my site, it showed that I’m utilizing Cloudflare’s CDN:

Regarding Cloudflare, they are a popular choice for implementing a CDN. To get started, simply visit the Cloudflare website, register, add your domain, and redirect your domain name to their nameservers. Cloudflare provides an easy-to-follow tutorial, and what’s more, it’s free of charge.

3. Optimize Your Image File Names & Alt Text

For photographers keen on mastering SEO, the third tip focuses on refining your image file names and alt text. Given the abundance of images on photography websites, this provides us an excellent opportunity to enhance SEO by incorporating our desired photography keywords in both the image file names and alt text.

The file name is the label you assign to an image upon saving it:

Alt text, short for alternative text, offers a concise explanation of the image and is vital for both web accessibility and SEO, as search engines rely on this text to understand the content of the image:

When assigning file names and crafting alt text, it’s beneficial to include your specific keyword. For instance, if you’re targeting “portrait photographer in Seattle” and have images of yourself photographing clients, choose a file name like “seattle-portrait-session.jpg” rather than a generic “image1.jpg” or “DSC1003.jpg.” For the alt text, opt for a descriptive phrase like “Seattle-based portrait photographer capturing a client on a cloudy day” instead of a simple “photo.” This method significantly improves your website’s search engine visibility, boosting your ranking for the targeted keywords.

4. Keyword-focused titles

Alright, fourth SEO trick for photographers: Amp up those page titles with keywords! These page titles, or meta titles, are those HTML elements that name your webpage. You know, the headlines you click on in Google search results:

Here’s the lowdown on nailing your title tags: Use your main keyword in there, try not to repeat the same title tags across your photography site, and watch the length to keep it from being cut off.

Ever heard of truncation? That’s when your title’s too long and gets the dreaded ‘…’ chop from search engines. This can mess with how many people click through to your site – less traffic, less clients, less of the good stuff:

If you’re using a custom-coded website, you can dive into the HTML yourself. But if you’re using a CMS like WordPress or Squarespace, like most of us, it’s a bit different. Squarespace lets you change the meta title in its settings. On WordPress, you’ll need a handy SEO plugin to fiddle with those HTML bits such as RankMath.

5. Ensure Proper Headings

Tip number five for SEO-savvy photographers: Get your heading structure on point.

What we’re talking about here are those H1, H2, H3 tags, and so on. These HTML tags label your headings and subheadings. Think of them as traffic signs guiding both your visitors and search engine bots through your content, making everything more digestible and clear about what your page is all about.

Here’s a quick breakdown: in HTML, they look a certain way, and on your page, they look another:

Here’s how they look in HTML:

H1 Header
H2 Header
H3 Header

This is how they look on the page:

Important note: You should have only one H1 tag per page, and it’s smart to weave in your target keyword.

Let’s say your target is “new york portrait photographer.” That ought to be your H1. Now, this alone won’t shoot you to the top of Google, but it sure helps to have your main keyword in your H1.

Moving on to H2s and H3s: this is where your secondary keywords come into the picture. These are the support crew for your main keyword. For example, if your primary keyword is “new york portrait photographer,” your secondary ones might include variations like “new york fashion portrait photographer,” “new york portrait photography,” and so on. Each photographer will have different secondary keywords that gel best with their style. To really nail down which keywords are perfect for you, it’s all about tailoring them to fit your business goals which I can help with.

6. Responsive on Mobile

Tip six for photographers mastering SEO: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly.

Here’s the deal: A mobile-optimized website is crucial. Think about this: almost 60% of all web traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices. Moreover, search engines like Google prioritize mobile-first indexing. They essentially view your website through the lens of a mobile browser for indexing and ranking purposes.

In plain language, your site needs to shine on mobile, maybe even more than on desktop. If it’s falling short on mobile, it could be dragging down your rankings and your ability to draw in visitors.

Want to know how to check if your site is mobile-friendly? Google Chrome’s DevTools is your friend. Just fire up Chrome, head to your site, right-click, select Inspect, and then hit the Toggle Device Toolbar button. Choose a mobile device to emulate. This shows you what your site looks like on a mobile device:

For instance, I checked how one of my articles appeared on an iPhone 12 Pro. If you spot anything off on mobile, like weird spacing, images, or text, it might be time for some adjustments, or perhaps a chat with a developer.

7. Focusing Local SEO

Seventh and last on the SEO advice list for photographers: Harness the potential of Local SEO.

For photographers who serve local clients, Local SEO is key. It’s crucial for any business that customers would usually visit in person, like eateries, contractors, salons, shops, and more. Local SEO zeroes in on search results for a particular area, distinct from general SEO. You’ll spot local results when searching with “near me” or for services typically offered locally. Here’s a look at the “local map pack” where you can feature with solid Local SEO:

Here’s what you need to nail Local SEO:

Optimize Google My Business

This free Google feature allows your business to appear in Local Map Pack and on Google Maps. If you’re a local photographer and don’t have a Google My Business account yet, it’s high time to create one. Ensure you fill in all details, including services, images, contact info, and your website.

Create Local Citations

This means listing your business on well-known online directories with consistent name, address, and phone number (NAP). For photographers, a presence on Yelp is a good beginning. Ensure your Yelp profile is thorough and matches your other listings.

Accumulate Online Reviews

Another crucial aspect of Local SEO is to get reviews on your Google My Business and other directory listings, like Yelp. A smart move is to ask clients for a review immediately after a successful photoshoot, when they’re most satisfied and the experience is fresh.

And there you have it, my complete SEO guide for photographers. I hope you find these tips helpful. If you see any areas where you’re lagging in these optimizations, now is the perfect time to start working on them!

Questions? Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. If you don’t even know where to begin, I offer a Free Photography SEO Audit on my site!

intricate organic sculptures by ranjani shettar weave into the barbican’s lush conservatory

Nov 24, 2023 By Admin in Sculpture

the barbican’s iconic conservatory showcases a site-specific installation by indian sculptor ranjani shettar.

Aussie mum sells rare painting for $200, discovers it was worth $20,000

Nov 24, 2023 By Admin in Printmaking

An Aussie mum has been left devastated after discovering the painting she sold for $200 on Facebook Marketplace was actually a rare piece of art worth 100 times that.

Painting stolen 60 years ago turns up in Lancashire village

Nov 24, 2023 By Admin in Art World News

Art Recovery International

The painting is by celebrated French artist Edouard Léon Cortès

A painting stolen from a New York art gallery 60 years ago has been found 3,000 miles away in a Lancashire village.

Art conservationists are celebrating after Flower Market Madeline by Edouard Léon Cortès turned up in Mawdesley.

Art Recovery International was alerted to the painting when a Lancashire-based art dealer offered it up for sale online.

The painting was originally displayed in the Herbert Arnot Gallery.

It was one of 3,000 works stolen over a 12-year period in the 1950s and 1960s by the former gallery manager Louis Edelman.

Edelman was eventually arrested in Chicago by the FBI in the 1960s and convicted of transporting stolen artworks across state lines.

He was jailed for two years and given a $10,000 fine, but most of the paintings were never recovered.

Art Recovery International

FBI agents foiled Edelman’s scheme in the 1960s and recovered a number of works

Flower Market Madeline, which depicts a flower market in the style of other street artworks by the French artist, was bought in November 2022 by Carnes Fine Art from the Manchester-based Capes Dunn auction house.

Bradley Carnes, director of Carnes Fine Art, said he paid more than £10,000 for the work and said he was shocked when Art Recovery International contacted him after he advertised it for sale on his website.

He said: “I always look for provenance, so gallery labels, certificates, receipts and so forth to make sure that the painting is actually genuine and not a fake, but you don’t think about them being stolen.

“Initially I thought it was a scam, but through a quick Google search I found out the person contacting me was the head of Art Recovery International.

“From the outset, we got on really well and we just made sure that this painting got back to its rightful owner in New York.”

Mr Carnes was eventually reimbursed for the painting.

Christopher Marinello, a lawyer and founder of Art Recovery International, spent several months unwinding the sale.

He found that the painting had been consigned to Capes Dunn in 2022 by a Cheshire estate who confirmed that it was acquired from the MacConnal-Mason Gallery in London.

Mr Marinello said: “We are very grateful to Bradley Carnes, Capes Dunn, and their vendor for releasing this stolen painting unconditionally to the Arnot Gallery.

“While in this instance we were able to convince many of the parties to reimburse the other, eventually there will be those who are out of luck.

“I cannot stress enough the importance of performing due diligence and authentication checks which would have uncovered this stolen painting decades earlier.”

Mr Marinello urged anyone buying or selling paintings by Edouard-Leon Cortés to check with the Arnot Gallery for proper authentication.

“We have been recovering one or two pictures per year from this 60-year-old theft and we’re never going to give up until every last one is returned,” he said.