Framing Respect

Last night we went to a party and while talking to a friend, she asked if I sold my work here in San Miguel. I told her that I was preparing a show for Houston and at some point I would bring that work down and see about having a show here. She told me that she was helping someone decorate a house and she was thinking about using Black and White photographs made in Mexico in one place. I told her about the work from Xilitla that would be in the show. She then said that she was looking for the glass and holding clips so that the work would be displayed between two pieces of glass.

I guess my face told what I was thinking which was, that was not the way to display this work....that the work deserved more respect that that....because she then said, "you don't like that idea do you?" I was flustered. Flustered that I was such an open book and flustered that my reaction had been so strong that this was disrespectful of my work.

As we walked home I kept thinking about this incident. And on a rational level, I can tell myself that if someone is willing to buy a piece of my work it becomes their possession and they can frame it anyway they want. But on the emotional side of my brain I keep thinking that this is treating my work like a poster stuck on the wall between two pieces of glass with clips holding it all together. I don't want anyone to see my work on someone's wall as a "poster."