AddOn adds up

When Charles McKean began inviting photographers into the first AddOn in 2011, some he approached for submissions were sceptical.

“Some asked me, ‘Who do you think you are?’” he recalls.

“I had a few people get really stuck into me saying, ‘I look after artists. Why would they pay to give you a free picture?’”

Another asked why they would want to put an image on display anonymously. But such claims have little impact on McKean. In AddOn’s second year the exhibition has grown enough to give little doubt that many photographers want to be involved – even if it is a concept that involves checking their ego in at the door.

The idea of an exhibition without names, which McKean developed in close consultation with Head On Photo Festival Director Moshe Rosenzveig, attracted over 90 invited guests in its first year. Over 100 will be on display in 2012 at Mary Place Gallery from May 18.

Approximately one third of the calls for entry are sent out to professionals and exhibiting art photographers.

To this a celebrity contingent are added: creative people from other fields who are interested in trying their hand at another discipline. The third section are talented emerging photographers who are not yet making a living out of their image making.

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