Picture Perfect

You can thank Denver photographer (and photography booster) Mark Sink for setting Denver’s Month of Photography in motion. “It’s pretty grassroots — just me, myself and my staff of me,” Sink says with a grain of salt. But though he’s at the center of the maelstrom that is MOP, he acknowledges that others happily share the burden. In fact, in March, more than a hundred venues will present photography shows of every stripe, theme and variety. “I set them spinning off like a top,” Sink says, and the result is a dizzying display of the vibrant chemical reaction that is photography, on view all over town and even around the world.

Highlights include The Digital and Darkroom Print Event, a four-day, multi-gallery photographic print showcase focusing on collectors (with incentives to match), which continues through March 5 at a variety of venues. RedLine, the gallery at 2350 Arapahoe Street that’s also serving as a hub for MOP activities, including portfolio reviews, lectures and workshops, has a three-part show: Discoveries of the Houston Photofest Meeting Place, Thought Objects and Modern Uses of Alternative Processes; all three are on view through April 16, with a reception on March 11 from 5 to 9 p.m. And then there’s The Big Picture, an ambitious project spearheaded by Sink and Illiterate Gallery that involves a worldwide photography exchange of images that are Xeroxed and blown up into street-art posters. That kicks off tonight at Illiterate, 82 South Broadway, and on walls around town (not to mention billboards in Switzerland and bridges in London).

That’s just a snapshot of some of this month’s MOP offerings; to see what else is developing, visit http://monthofphotography.blogspot.com.

March 1-31, 2011