Earlier in the year, Agora Gallery developed its online presence by moving into the world of social media. The blog, Agora Art, discusses trends and interesting news items from the art world and provides a forum for artists and art enthusiasts to share opinions, ideas and inspiration. Agora Gallery’s Facebook page is an excellent way to keep in touch with the latest events at the gallery, whilst the Twitter feed keeps followers up to date with recent developments in the global art scene.

In many ways, this was a symptom of natural growth and of Agora Gallery’s commitment to using the best of modern communication tools to share and spread news about the gallery, artists, and the wider art world. Social media has become increasingly prominent in the past year or so. It played a role in last year’s presidential campaign and continues to be utilized effectively by the current White House administration – FDR had a weekly radio broadcast, but the current President uses online video site YouTube to get his message across to the people. Twitter, which allows users to share information in updates of up to 140 characters, or ‘tweets’ – of which there are about three million a day – proved vital in monitoring the unfolding events surrounding the Iranian election protests. Social networks account for about ten percent of internet usage – particularly Facebook, which has a ‘population’ so large that if it were a country it would be the eighth most populated in the world.

Yet despite all this, many people still have difficulty in appreciating the benefit social media can have when it comes to the arts. Social media, they say, is either social, a way to keep in touch with friends, see their photos or videos or news, or media related, a way of sharing news or advertising products. It is true that social media is both of these things. But that doesn’t mean that it has nothing to do with art. On the contrary, these elements bear a crucial relevance to the arts world.

The fact is that publicizing events is as vital to arts organizations as it is to any other. It doesn’t matter how great your exhibition is, or how fantastic your performers are going to be, if no one gets to hear about it. For that reason if no other, it is important to participate in the online networks where so many people go to share news and find out what is going on in their town, city or holiday destination. Not accepting this reality risks alienating a powerful potential source of visitors, audience members and clients.

As an artist, I feel there is nothing more gratifying than being able to use your gift of art as a means in which you are able to bring a greater level of social awareness to the world. On that note, I decided to set out for South Africa last summer where I would spend a month shooting. My trip was two fold; first and foremost I wanted to volunteer,as I did, working with disease and poverty stricken orphans. The second part of my mission was to document the trip (shooting) every step of the way as any shrewd photojournalist would do.

 In hindsight, the preparation for the trip was half the battle! Prior to a trip to a foreign country there is much to prepare for beginning with your equipment. In my case i traveled with three cameras, four lenses, extra batteries, chargers, memory cards, a tripod,flash, an electrical converter, and a handy little device called an Epson P5000 which was one form of digital backup for me along with my laptop. Needless to say, my backpack was about one third of my body weight. The most important message I’d like to send with regard to the backpack is to ALWAYS keep it on your person, even while traveling. Nothing could be worse than traveling across the world and upon landing you are told by the airline that your backpack ful of your equipment is no where to be found.

I arrived in South Africa, after much anticipation with an artistic eye and ready to accept any challenges that may come my way. As a photojournalist one must expect and be willing to take on challenges, as you never really know what the conditions will be prior to arriving at your location. My trip kept me on my toes as each and every day I was on the move to a new location; Some more palatable than others. My days began by 6:00am, I’d travel the country all day and shoot, and somewhere around midnight I would be wrapping up the long day in my hotel room, and then it was time to do my two forms of backup from the days shots. This allowed me to feel assured that I wont lose my images and I’d be ready to be on the move again in the morning.

Each time I arrived at an Orphanage I was a bit tense, not knowing how badly the children’s physical and or emotional state might be. The very first Orphanage was overwhelming yet brought me a tremendous amount of joy. I was traveling with a small group of Medical students from the US that were all there to volunteer, and I found myself first in line entering the Orphanage. As I opened the door, suddenly the entire building became silent, and all eyes were on me. I was draped in cameras and other equipment and didn’t want the children to be scared so at the entrance way I sat down on the floor, took one random shot of some of the children and then turned my camera around so they could immediately see the image of themselves. One brave child (none of which spoke English) approached me, looked at my camera’s image and threw her arms around me in a huge embrace. I tried to hold back, but I must admit it brought tears to my eyes. In no time at all, all the kids were rushing over to me...my work had just begun. I found that if I could feel a connection to the children (even with the language barrier in my way) that I would successfully be able to photograph my subjects and have the images accurately speak too my audience.

Agora Gallery is pleased and proud to announce the launch of an exciting new project. Your New York Art Gallery arose because of our own appreciation of the privilege and unique advantages that are part of being a gallery in one of the world's most desirable locations; New York's art district - West Chelsea. Of course, Chelsea is Agora Gallery's home, but it occurred to us that there are galleries who are based outside of New York, and who mainly display work elsewhere, who would be able to benefit from also mounting exhibitions here.