Ellen and I were looking for a creative way to raise some real money to reelect President Obama. We hit upon the idea of having a fine art photography auction and PhotObama was born! It is a blessing that I had no idea just how immense the amount of work would be to pull something like this off until it was too late. I put out some feelers to photographer and collector friends and the response was overwhelmingly generous. Almost before I knew it we had 30 very fine photographs and willing volunteers. My dear friend Huston offered to put together the catalog. Gary with Weaver Street Realty agreed to be our auctioneer. John and Robin of Lip Service Catering not only agreed to cater the event for 70 people but donate ALL of the food! Craven Allen Gallery matted and framed a bunch of the donations AND gave us framing gift certificates. Other dear friends came forward to offer financial sponsorship of the event and we ended up with 43 co-hosts! In a very intense week we managed to get all of the pieces here and hung AND get another new photography show hung in the gallery upstairs. I could not have done it without our wonderful intern Lisa who is in the new MFA program at Duke. She was with me through the patching and painting, matting and framing, curating, lighting, and cleaning.
Jesse Kalisher's stunning image of Obama in Chapel Hill was a huge hit.
North Carolina photographers John Rosenthal, David Simonton, Dan Gottlieb, and Tom Rankin were among the 24 photographers in the auction preview gallery.
Lisa and Diane at the registration desk.
Two of our wonderful co-hosts Helen and Jesse tour the new show in the upstairs gallery.
Diane, a full time volunteer with the Obama campaign, fires up the troops before the auction. She is completely inspiring. She shared with us this wonderful video:
Gary kept the energy level high and the bids flowing. Ilana was spotting while Ellen played Vanna.
The big action came from the balcony.
Except when Jim and David fought it out on the floor.
A few of the the hottest items of the evening were MJ Sharp's Escaping the Family Reunion
Elizabeth Matheson's Old Bank Milton, NC
Lori Vrba's Blindfold
and Dan Gottlieb's Winter Forest 4
You can check out the whole catalog here-- Download Cassilhaus PhotObama Auction Catalog Final
The energy in the room was incredible and we TRIPLED our $8000 goal raising an unbelievable $25,000! We were over the moon. The support from the Obama campaign, Diane, and all of our friends and co-hosts was extraordinary. After the dissapointment of losing the NC Amendment One fight it felt great to feel such great momentum in moving the country FORWARD!
There is much still to be done. Ellen and I are phone banking every Tuesday. We hope you will join us. The link to our fundraising site will be live right up to the election and we welcome each of our readers to donate here.
GOBAMA!
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