Reviewing their own portfolio images is something all photographers must do on a regular basis. I recommend it to anybody who comes to me for advice and guidance. For many young student photographers, building their first book is a daunting prospect. Often when I ask to see their work they wave in front of my eyes a memory stick, DVD or external hard drive. “It’s all on ‘ere” they say. Your photographs may be on there I say, but do you have them backed-up? You know, in-case you lose them. Anyway, I remind them – Photographs don’t exist unless they are on printed on (what was that stuff called in the old days? Oh yes) paper. Get it printed to a reasonable standard, then show me. “What’s a reasonable standard?” Perhaps try a good quality paper, to a decent size and show a print with good tonal values and rich colours. Also how about neatness, cleanliness and presented in a suitable box?
Quite often I discover to my dismay that a student’s work is not backed-up in three places and filed and meta data’d so it is easily found. But these little tinkers are students and are there to learn, their ignorance can be excused. But what about professional photographers, what about me for that matter. Work and life pressures get in the way and before you know it you are showing images that are not representative of where you are at now. Are they all backed-up correctly? Yes the client got their disc and contacts but you must make sure everything is as safe as safe can be…. and it can be found.
Anyway, for a while now I have been reviewing my portfolio. Too much of what I show to people is stuff that I think they want to see. What does a potential client want to see? I’ve been asking myself far too often. Will they like this sort of work? Will they like me, if I show that sort of image? Too many question marks for my liking. I have rarely craved anybody’s approval in the past. Why start now? From now on I will show what I want to see. What I want to shoot, in the way that I want to shoot it. In the end we all need to make our own choices, and as Wynn Bullock said “I think we have to satisfy ourselves first, because if you take the opinions of others, pretty soon you’ll become totally confused”.
A note to my students here. My comments about self-determination here are targeted at matured photographers who have progressed to the point of knowing good practice from bad, or should do. In other words, they have already had a considerable level of intelligent education and experience.
A portfolio ought to be representative of the photographer’s ideas and conceptual and creative abilities. Craft skills are important but only when these first criteria are met. A portfolio rich in ideas, exploration and evolution will work even if it’s execution is half baked. Despite a weak aesthetic presentation, a person reviewing the book who possesses creative faculty and integrity will positively appreciate the sentiment and soul inherent within the work presented. Furthermore, if this is supported with workbooks containing extensive notes and evolutionary imagery, then surely a truly creative and hard working individual is represented.
Conversely, a portfolio full of technical histrionics and craft virtuosity will appear bloated and devoid of any real creativity. A book of this sort will only represent it’s maker as somebody who misguidedly believes images made using software or darkroom based tricksey jiggery pokery is good work. It isn’t, and the twerps who feel that extreme HDR pictures or photos that are filtered to resemble watercolour paintings is the way to go, then please go, and go far, far from here.
A portfolio that holds well thought out ideas of substance and meaning, photographs that are about something, produced in a considered way, using craft skills that only support the ideas, that do not subvert but illuminate and enhance the thinking behind the creation of the photographs, there is a portfolio that will be impressive. Such a book will communicate the nature of it’s maker and their concerns in an effective manner. This sort of portfolio transcends commerce and may even result in more fulfilling future commissions. Even if it does not, it’s author’s development as a photographer will be accelerated. He or she will become an even more effective image maker, not just a shop keeper. This should be the ambition of any good practitioner.
When your portfolio is ready to be shown to a client or for critique by your peers in an educational or other forum. Listen with great care to any comments made. Your mum will always love your work, no matter how good or bad so ensure that you only show your book to those whose photographic opinions you respect. A colleague of great standing or your teacher would be a good start. Always respect your teacher’s opinion or why seek a photographic education in the first place? Prospective clients or employers may or may not offer you the commission and may reject you on factors other than your portfolio. If they do, understand that your work cannot meet everybody’s requirements. But a portfolio presented using the guidelines suggested above will be a portfolio made by a photographer who is trying to exhibit their best work possible presented in the best way possible.
Where is my work at now? Well, it is in constant flux, driven by my desire to disregard commercial considerations, I am working on different projects of mine. Photography is at it’s best when presented as several images, each functioning as part of a whole. That whole needs to be idea or concept or narrative driven. Also I prefer to keep an emotional distance in time between the camera work and the editing and printing process. Months or years may pass from the exposure to the print. Client led assignments have deadline imperatives and this methodology will not work for commissions. But my concern here, is the development of a portfolio that satisfies me, and nobody else. Below, I have inserted a few images that fall under the remit of my own manifesto.
The next post will discuss the various merits of presentation methods. Such as print quality, paper sizes and types, and portfolio boxes and cases and such. But the most important aspect of what images should constitute an effective portfolio has been covered – in part – here.
