Glyphs of Time :: a blog by jarvis grant

Well, the 2010 PDN PhotoPlus Expo is October 28-30, and is once again at  the voluminous Jacob Javits Center in New York City. PhotoPLus Expo, also Toys-R-Us for Photographers, is were you’ll see all the lastest stuff you may not really need, but still want to have right there for ya. When you go to the web site, there are a lot of elaborate placeholders with the overall message being, Register Now! There are no official exhibitors nor are there any seminars to register for yet, but if nothing else, you can go ahead and make your hotel reservations. The earlier you book in New York, the better the deal you’ll get. PhotoPlus has their travel site up, but you may want to check out travel sites like Travelocity & Yahoo Travel for a little comparison pricing.

The first time I attended PhotoPlus Expo, it was in 1983 at the old New York Convention Center.  To paraphrase Paul Simon’s Kodachrome, “When I think back on all the crap in learned in art school!” None of it was how to make a living. PhotoExpo East as it was then called, really opened up the door, and shed some real light on the whole industry of photography. For example, at one seminar call, How Art Buyers Choose Photographers, there were three agencies from New York City there that billed $600,000,000 in creative talent between them! $600,000,000 between three agencies! Man, all that poor artist stuff I was fed in college was a load of crap in deed.

There was another seminar at that fateful PhotoExpo, about marketing that laid out a roadmap for getting my share of that $600,000,000 plus in potential income from the creative industry. It all seemed so clear for the very first time. Now during the 1980s, the cash was flowing like rivers, and alas,  those days are over. While the money may not be busting out of advertising agencies like in the “good old days”, the money is still there for us to get. The lesson of all this, is that, one needs to stay sharp and competative on how the big guys & girls stay big and a head of the pack! So, if you have never gone to NYC for the PhotoPlus Expo experience, it’s definitely worth a trip. Even if it’s just a day trip.