It all started with a little gallery named MIR in the Arcade. At the time, my co-worker, Miranda Herrick, and I were just warming up to each other to become friends. She was running MIR and mentioned that she could always use extra hands to help in the gallery during Art Crawls.
I took the opportunity to exercise my photography muscle again, and I started documenting the openings.
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| One of the first showings of Miranda's series, Reflective |
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| I have always loved Miranda's knack for interesting art displays. The four photos in the middle are a small series of mine called From the Sky |
Photographing openings at MIR Gallery naturally led to me covering the openings Miranda has with her works in other galleries and spaces. Through the years, I have amassed several examples of her Works and Days presentations.
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| MIR Gallery |
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| Getting ready for the wall |
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| Again with the excellent hanging |
What started as an exercise ended up being a huge professional boon for both of us. Miranda recently published a book of her Works and Days series. The book contains all 365 of the drawings from that series in chronological order, which also spans the color wheel. She used several of my photographs in the introduction of the book, which means I am published in an art book.
Woo hoo!!
One of the best things about working with Miranda is that it started as friends just looking to celebrate art and get it out into the world. I don't think either of us anticipated our working together at MIR would turn into a partnership with such far-reaching effects. Over the years, my desire to flex that photography muscle has led to me being able to provide Miranda with images of her work in different spaces, the design of her website, and some of the promotional materials for her openings. While we do have a system of compensation, the best thing I get out of working with Miranda is seeing her growing success and knowing I helped, even if only a little bit.
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| One of the cards I designed for Miranda's paired opening with Scott E. Hill |
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| Miranda and me at one of the MIR openings in 2010 |
The moral of the story? If you have the instinct to help out a friend while you work on your own craft, follow it. The least that will happen is you will strengthen your bond of friendship. From there, the sky is the limit.
