For many artists, dialogue is critical to their development and progress. In an age when the majority of photographers and multimedia producers spend a great deal of their time in front of computers, this real-life conversation can be lost. Photo sharing websites, like Flickr, can provide some feedback, but there is nothing that compares with the presence of an educated audience and the opportunity to speak and curate a body of work for critique. Recognizing a need, San Francisco photojournalist Tim Wagner began the event “Open Show” in an effort to give photographers the ability to do just that. The now-global project works with high-profile spaces to let the public “see compelling work and interact directly with photographers, filmmakers and multimedia producers.” The model they have developed gives five curated presenters 10 minutes to show 20 images or three sets of 7-minute presentations of a multimedia work and then receive the crowd’s feedback. “I wanted to launch “Open Show” in Detroit after attending the event in San Francisco,” says “Open Show Detroit” Co-producer Amy Senese, “I see ‘Open Show’ as an opportunity for people in Detroit to tell their own stories about the city we live in. The national media has such a hold over the images and stories being told about Detroit, this is an opportunity to get together monthly and put the real stories out there about our city. Thanks to ‘Open Show Global’ network, we were able to launch the event successfully in Detroit and received a great response from the audience as they had an opportunity to interact directly with filmmakers and photographers doing great work in the city.”

“Open Show Detroit” made its debut last month at the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography to a large crowd. From the comments on “Open Show Detroit’s” Facebook page, College for Creative Studies professor and renowned photographer Carlos Diaz added, “For those who could not be at the ‘Open Show #1’, let me just say that it was a wonderful and worthwhile event. Good photographers showing interesting work that facilitated great comments and conversation, a very unique opportunity for members of the Detroit photography community to engage in real conversation about what we all do as artists. Outside of the academic world, this is a very rare thing, man. My congratulations go out to Amy and Bin for all of their time and effort in putting these events together and for contributing to the dynamics of our community.” With a commitment to “getting great work seen,” the second installment of “Open Show Detroit” is tonight, Friday, Oct. 28, at the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography. Artists Aaron Guay, Brian Day, Gary Schwartz, Joe Sobel and Noah Stephens will be presenting their bodies of work. The event is free and starts at 7 p.m.

The Detroit Center for Creative Photography is located in the Russell Industrial Center at 1600 Clay St., Detroit, Mich.