Snyder County Snapshots is/was a Photo Exhibition and Competition that ended it’s first year last night. I am the curator of this event. It was my brainchild that grew so quickly in front of my eyes that even I was surprised by how amazing it turned out. It all started with spit-balling an idea, not thinking it would snowball into being interviewed for the local news, featured in multiple articles, and being catered by Whetstone Kitchen. When I gave the idea to my boss, I never thought this event would grow to such popularity so quickly for being a newer event.
To start, I’d like to thank all my friends here at Susquehanna who gave me all their love and support because I am so far away from my family right now. You guys really helped keep me calm when even the little issues with the show seemed major to me. I’d like to thank Pam, my director for giving me this opportunity and believing in me and my ability to pull this off way before I believed in myself. I’d like to thank Mitch, my coworker, and friend for the endless crab memes, constant encouragement, support, and push to shoot farther than the stars. Thank you to Geoff and Whetstone Kitchen for working with me and taking interest in this event and helping me pull off an amazing and tasty reception. Without everyone’s help, I don’t think this event would have been possible. I’m so excited for next year and the other, smaller art events we have in the works.
Before this, I always dreamt of myself as a businesswoman but always thought I was too much of a dreamer and a laid back person to really crack down and be as authoritative as I thought I was supposed to be. Now, after this event, I realize what kind of business woman I am. I am more the type to always ask if something is plausible before just ordering people around. I realized that being more of a laid-back leader works best for me. I don’t like telling people what to do. I prefer to get opinions and ideas and then see what works best for the situation. That’s the style of leadership I used during this show. It worked pretty well.
People told me “It’s a new event, don’t expect to knock it out of the park on the first try. It takes time to get events off the ground,” or “You probably won’t sell more than a hundred tickets.” Oh Yeah? Watch me. We proved all the pessimists wrong. This event blew everything out of the water. Every expectation I had was achieved and then some. I was even surprised. I’m on cloud nine, to be completely honest. I truly believed in the power of this event from the beginning and am so proud to see how well it went. This event was huge for a twenty-year-old like me who is just passing the halfway mark in college to pull off at this magnitude.
Congratulations to our winners! Rita came in first place with “Wow!” a picture of lightning suspended in time. Michelle came in second with “Subconscious Reflection” a picture of colorful, abstracted river ripples. Her 15-year-old son, Aidan, came in third with “Canoe in June,” a beautiful depiction of a blue canoe in the blue water of the Susquehanna River. I’m so thankful for all of our participants for trusting in this event and submitting. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to be as successful as we were. Thank you for giving me this opportunity and trusting my vision.