By Ciera Battleson
On April 15, more than 20 photography students from the Daytona and Orlando area gathered at Sweet Marlay’s Coffee House on Beach Street to promote and share their most recent and/or acclaimed works with the public.
The “In Our Hands Photo Show” was organized by Daytona State photographer and local cinematique employee Camille Seiler, with the help of close friend and fellow photographer Chris Wegman. The show was broadcasted on Facebook with 76 guests RSVPing to the event. Hosted by Sweet Marlay’s Coffee House, all guests were welcome to look at the artwork while sipping their choice of beverage.
The work of each photographer was seen throughout the coffee house, expressing individual taste and talent. Being an event apart from the Daytona State College, Camille and the participating photographers set up the entire photo show accompanied with food, music and even a photo booth in the back of the coffee house. The photo booth was merely for fun, taking pictures of all the guests and photographers involved or attending the show. Each artist was also allowed to sell their work for reasonable prices to interested buyers.
“We really wanted to take what we learned from the classroom and apply it to real life. We did this all on our own and so far it turning out better than we imagined,” said Seiler.
The event took four months of planning, but by the end of the night the turnout was tremendous with more than 200 guests piled into Sweet Marlay’s to catch a glimpse of some of the artwork. Sweet Marlay’s location on Beach Street seemed a good location for tourists and locals to experience the event. Also, after the photo show, all pictures from the photo booth were shared on Facebook so guests and the photographers could enjoy them.
The overall goal of the show was to bring photographers out of the classroom to share their work and develop relationships with the public along with networking. With such a positive response from the public, and from the energy of the photographers Camille promised there will plenty more photo shows in the future.
“The feedback from this was amazing. So much came from just an idea. We have all these talented young photographers not doing anything so why not turn that creative energy into a catalyst,” Seiler said.