In May of this year, Russell C. Banks landed a solo exhibition. His project “Floating World” was exhibited at the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center in Sacramento, California, with a special reception held on May 19^th. He also recently signed a second contract for a solo exhibition, which will run most of summer 2025 in the main gallery of the Foothills Art Center in Golden, Colorado. But these solo exhibits aren’t Russell’s first. Back in the late 70s/early 80s, Russell had other one-man shows featuring some black and white landscape work he had done. Around the same time, “Infant Series” – a collection of black and white images he took of his infant son – got picked up by a few galleries as well.

We wondered, how did he do it? Countless street photographers would love to have their photography exhibited, but the potential challenges and all the unknowns can seem overwhelming. There’s the pitch, the printing, the logistics, the possibility that a gallery won’t consider street or documentary photography to be “fine art,” just to mention a few.

Lucky for us, Russell is passionate about showing his work and talking about the process. He says, “I don’t want to just do stuff to look at on a computer screen. I want to share it.” This was evident when he and Bob talked shop in the SPM podcast episode “Documenting Cruise Culture with Russell C. Banks.”

He broke down the process for us, from the inception of his “Floating World” project all the way to landing solo exhibitions with a series of these images, and today, we’ll share it with you. Hopefully, Russell’s experiences can serve as a guide for any street photographer looking to see their photos hanging on a gallery wall someday.

How it Started

When he headed off to college at the University of Texas in Austin, Russell started out as an English major. He was into literature and writing, but when he discovered there were photography courses in the journalism department, he quickly shifted his focus. Here was a blending of his interest in writing and photography, which had long been a hobby of his.

In his senior year, he took a photography class led by Garry Winogrand. Had he taken it a few years earlier, it would have been led by Russell Lee, “the Russell Lee, from the Farm Security Administration work,” he said emphatically. But hey, who’s complaining about a class by Garry Winogrand? Winogrand’s classes were essentially discussions based on students’ work, he told us. “Students came in with prints from the work they’d done the previous week, stuck them up on a bulletin board, and he would walk around talking about what he noticed, what was working, and what wasn’t, and lead a discussion. It was great for him because he didn’t have to do any class prep. It was a cushy deal,” Russell chuckled. In all seriousness though, Russell says even without giving that class his undivided attention at the time, he absorbed many lessons from Winogrand’s perspectives. These were slowly revealed over the years, and his “Floating World” series is an especially noteworthy example.

“Floating World” began when Russell and his wife started taking cruises in the early 90s. When they retired in 2013, they started cruising more and more frequently, sometimes taking half a dozen cruises a year! Russell started walking the decks with his camera, shooting street photography style. “It’s a bizarre setting with rails and water, and the unique nautical architecture that ships have. The exterior decks have a lot of stairs going up and down, so it’s a dynamic environment. You can look up at scenes or down on scenes. And cruise ships have their own weird culture.” Russell realized he got to spend way more time in this unique and bizarre setting than most people, and with his appreciation for Winogrand’s focus on capturing moments, he started taking shots on every cruise. He was looking for moments, interesting compositions, and scenes that made the viewer wonder.

“I kept at it for a few years and started printing a few things as I got more comfortable with what I was doing. And then, when I had enough images that I thought were strong, I started putting together a portfolio, printing the best shots on 11×17 Canson Baryta photo paper. He showed this initial series to friends and family and was encouraged by their comments. That’s when he decided it was time to find out where his project really stood.  

Portfolio Reviews at the Houston FotoFest

The next step for Russell was to show his work to the people he calls “the gatekeepers.” He signed up for three days of reviews during the 2019 FotoFest, despite some people warning him off. They told him for his first portfolio review a huge event like Fotofest can be brutal, but that didn’t sway Russell. “It turned out to be quite an experience,” he said. Several reviewers told him they had never seen anything like his project. “That was encouraging because that’s the first thing you’ve got to do if you want to be noticed.” He knew he was on the right track.

Portfolio reviews can be art-changing, if not life-changing, and are something all photographers can benefit from. You might recall Manuel Almenares’ experience, or any other number of featured photographers we’ve had in the magazine. But the big question is: How do you get the most out of a review? Russell knew that a lot would depend on how he prepared.

“I took about 20 photos that demonstrated five different approaches to my photography on the ships.” This would help him determine which approach resonated the most and what approaches he might shift or abandon. He did 11×17 prints and stuck them in a nice little portfolio case that was easy to get in and out of. He put removable stickers on the back of the prints to number them. Each reviewer lays out the photos and may make different piles as part of the input process, so the stickers allowed him to reassemble them quickly for the next review. He bought a good notebook to keep notes in. In addition, he printed out a “contact sheet” with thumbnails of his photos on the top half and questions he wanted to ask on the bottom. This made taking notes and referring to specific photos quick and easy. He also made a few notes about each reviewer ahead of time to understand who they were and where they were coming from. With each reviewers’ permission, he also recorded the review audio.

All of this prep work paid off, because Russell reported that sometimes you had the next review as fast as you could move your stuff. Other times, you would have an hour or two between reviews to kill, and ever thorough, Russell continued getting input in the hallways. He talked to an ICP instructor visiting the event to get his own portfolio reviewed, a photo editor, and many others. Their input was, in some cases, just as valuable as what he received from the official reviewers.

Russell says that all in all, he feels the FotoFest pushed his work ahead by about three years in the span of just three days. “I would recommend it to anyone who has a body of work they need to get some qualified input on.” He came away with a huge list of suggestions that he picked through and new ideas to play with as he decided where to take his body of work next.

Showing Single Images

FotoFest helped Russell feel confident about the portfolio he had been compiling. He continued to shoot on each cruise and his portfolio grew to include roughly 40 images. At this point, Russell started sending images off to various calls for entries and getting some hits on them. His solarium photo was a hit and what chosen for an annual member show held by the Texas Photographic Society and at exhibits in Oregon and California. “I continued that to get more input and to build a little resume for my images.” It wasn’t long before Russell felt ready to pursue a solo exhibit.

Graduating to a Solo Show

Russell started keeping a running list of places he could submit his work to and once he had quite a few galleries in mind, he reached out to them. His approach was simple: Send a query email with his artist statement, a link to the work on his website, and a personalized message for the gallerist or publisher asking if they would be interested in showing his work. This is, in fact, how Floating World came to be published in SPM. If the gallery or art center happened to be close enough, Russell would sometimes visit in-person and show his portfolio to the curator.

Russell did indeed score his solo shows, as we mentioned earlier, but not without enduring plenty of rejections too. He says, “Facing rejection constantly is part of the gig if you’re going to put your work out there. You just have to show up anyway and realize that usually you’re going to get rejected.” Facing up to that amount of rejection can be tough, which is why any artist looking to exhibit their work needs plenty of determination and sticktoitiveness. It isn’t the only challenge a photographer should be prepared for though.

Besides getting accepted by a gallery, there are logistics to consider. Printing, framing, and shipping to and from a show often lands on the photographers’ back, Russell explained, and it can get pricey fast. Some galleries are more collaborative though. For example, the Sacramento gallery set to show his work keeps a large stock of Plexiglas sizes photographers can opt to use for a show, which means they only need to ship prints. This lowers costs, but just shipping delicate, not to mention large, prints still isn’t cheap. (For more details on this process, give our podcast with Russell a listen.)

Often, precisely what expenses the photographer will be responsible for isn’t clear until you read the contract. Russell says that getting accepted by a gallery, and then having to turn down the show because costs are too high, is a real possibility. Still, he acknowledges that even if a show doesn’t come to fruition, getting eyes on your work is always beneficial and can lead to further exposure.

These days, Russell is enjoying the success Floating World has been having, including his solo exhibits, but he says the artist struggle is still very real. Once you dive into all of the pitching, planning and executing gallery shows call for, it can be tough to strike a balance between getting your work there, and continuing to create. But he doesn’t let it get him down. “There’s a lot of opportunity [when showing your work]. The collaborative process with a curator or editor is an extension of the creative process.”

Clearly, a photo’s journey from the camera to a gallery wall is a long one. It takes countless hours of thought and planning, it costs money, and it means facing rejection. Is all the work worth it? If you have a body of work you want to share with others, then the answer is absolutely. Listening to Russell talk about the process, you can hear it in his voice, showing your photos in a gallery, big or small, sharing your vision with others, brings enough joy to justify all the hard work.

Where to Find Russell C. Banks

• Website
• Instagram