For those who've forgotten, never knew or are otherwise unfamiliar with the name, Addie is the gallery manager at the Special Photographer's Company (SPC), a gallery, agency and photo library based in Notting Hill.

As Addie explained the gallery is a commercial space that shows and sells the work of approximately 50 photographers. The agency and library represent a greater number of photographers. The photo library specialises in 'fine art' (as opposed to 'stock') photography whose buyers range widely from interior designers to ad agencies.

So why did 13 LIP and contemporary group members want to meet her one sunny day? More to the point, what did we learn and what will we (well I!) do with my new found knowledge of the synergy between commercial and 'fine art' photography.

The morning was Addie's chance to sell us the concept of the SPC. The SPC is a gallery I visit periodically (ie whenever I'rn in the area) but it happens that I've only seen shows which were a combination of two or more of 50's, American, famous people or the music industry and frankly I'd come to think that this was all they did - misconception number one blown out of the water. As I've mentioned they represent a wide variety of photographers though they do have a history, and hence some bias, towards the music industry, jazz in particular.

The agency, as you might expect, links up photographers with work - this wasn't a major discussion point as the focus for the day was the library.

The afternoon was spend looking at portfolios of work and discussing how each photographer's style could be applied to the commercial envirownent and what next steps to take to move into it.

Addie had a number of general points relating to how to approach photo-libraries:

• Do your homework first - get a copy of BAPLA (British Association of Picture Libraries & Agencies, 0171-713-1780) and see which libraries are most likely to overlap with your work, perhaps get a copy of their catalogue and call them to discuss showing your work to them.
• Where possible drop your portfolio in to a library, it'll get looked at much more quickly (within a week usually with the SPC) than if you send it (which could take a couple of months.
• You may only want to put older work/finished projects into the library as seeing new work outside of your series/project might be disruptive

Beyond this we each had a specific discussion about our own portfolio. So what did I learn?

• Not everything that I do is likely to have commercial appeal - the more esoteric images are likely to be offputting. Make things easy for people when showing your work, show the most easily approachable pieces first. The approachability is very important when isolating a single image and putting it in a context other than the one you intended it for.
• Your portfolio is an introduction.If a library likes it they'll ask to see more.Take care not to overwhelm people with vast quantities the first time you show your work. If a library likes it they'll ask to see more.
• There is a critical mass of images you need to reach - the more images you have the more likely it is that a library is going to be interested. Also it spreads out your chances. It will depend on the fibrary but in the case of the SPC they don't take anyone into their fibrary unless the photographer has a minimum of 20 images that they wish to include. All the libraries have different contracts but with the SPC once you've paid your joining fee (£200) the number of images included in the library is fimited only by how many the SPC want to take additional to the minimum 20. Therefore it's worth going back and showing newer work.