If you have the possibility to make a speech, make it. The invited guests and visitors are interested enough in your work to show up at the opening. Therefore, there is an expectation that they would like to hear from you and about your passion and why you are doing it. Maybe making a speech could be a tricky exercise. And you may wonder what to say during one. For renowned artists, it is not uncommon to have speeches of 10 to 15 minutes.
My advice to beginners is to keep it short and give them to your visitors to enjoy the event. So, the message is a speech does not necessarily need to belong. A two to five minutes speech is totally fine and you will be fulfilling the audience's expectation. So what should you include in the speech for beginners in this section The size or simply for his purposes, I recommend a speech built in three parts. First, the introduction. You can start just with Ladies and gentlemen, for very formal approach, or dear photography lovers, if you're artists photography for less formal one, or you could even combine both like this, ladies and gentlemen and dear photography lovers continue by thanking who needs to be thanked.
Thank the guests for being there. Thank the organizer for organizing the event. thank everybody else as appropriate. For example, somebody who helped in preparing the exhibition. Talk about your passion. Explain why you are doing the exhibition, what is the essence of the body of work that you're presenting, and give insights into your creative process.
Finally, close the speech and here are some ideas Invite the guests to come to you if they have any questions. Invite them to sign your guestbook and wish them a great evening. Once you've written your speech, practice it several times until you're able to make it without reading any paper. During the speech itself, you might keep a memo at hand in case you're afraid of forgetting your speech. Use your own words when writing the speech. It makes things much easier and more natural when you will have to actually make the speech.
Indeed, it could be tempting to get help from somebody to write completely your speech. There's nothing wrong with this. My experience showed me that I was uncomfortable using somebody else's words and that it did not sound authentic in the sense that it did not reflect me One last advice on this. Just be yourself and keep smiling.