I have often wished I had the opportunity to attend a workshop... but the workshops I'm thinking of require that I submit a portfolio. And there where I get stopped in my tracks. I have thousands of photos and I could probably choose a few hundred that I'm very happy with. But a portfolio is more than that (at least as I understand it)... if I may borrow from The Luminous Landscape:
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Portfolios can be used to show the results of specific photographic endeavors
and present one’s work up to the time a portfolio is created.
Approached that way portfolios are easier to assemble and far less daunting or frightening. It also becomes clear that there can be many uses for a portfolio, each one tailored to different goals, purposes and audiences.
For example you can create:
– A portfolio that includes photographs from a single camera format (35mm, medium format, large format).– A portfolio which includes only black and white or sepia photographs .
– A portfolio of images which are radically different from your “regular” work and which will surprise your audience.
– A portfolio of images created over a specific period of time. This can be a short time (a one week photo trip for example), a specific year (2002, 2003, etc.), or another specific time frame.
– A portfolio of photographs all taken in a specific geographic area.
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One of my resolutions (I hate making them, but they are a way to start anew in areas that need renovation) for 2010 is to develop my photographic style... to make photographs that I would want to put into a portfolio - one that would hopefully get me accepted into a workshop.
2 comments:
I like your post but don't expect me to give an answer as we each have our own. I agree with your list and feel we can all have a set of portfolios rather than just one. In one of David Dechumin books, Vision Mongers, he suggests taking an inventory of ourselves to help us find our style, niche. What makes your heart sing? What type of images allow you to get lost when taking them and processing them? What are we good at?
For me to select 12 of my favorite images from this past year would include landscapes, flowers, portraits and street photos. Eclectic for sure.
Also, I read a post where the author suggested using the word "goal" rather than resolutions. I like that better. Have fun with your portfolios and please share them with us.
Take this with a grain of salt, as it comes from someone who has taken three portfolio classes but has yet to create an actual portfolio. Creating a portfolio is less about developing your photographic style than it is about discovering and defining your already-existing photographic style. To me you already have a recognizable personal style, but what I see in your work may not be what you see, because it is not easy to objectively look at your own work. We tend to evaluate our work based on what we want it to be or what we wish it was.
The challenge is to look at the work you have already done, identify common themes or characteristics, play around with groupings and combinations and end up with a coherent collection of images that work together as a group. You won’t have just one portfolio, you’ll have many.
I don’t have too much trouble getting that far, but remarkably for me I get hung up on presentation. How to I show it? Prints? Big or small? Matted or unmatted? Framed or unframed? I can never decide, so I just give up.
I’d worry less about the “perfect” portfolio and more about just putting together a collection of some sort. It can be based on any of the themes you mentioned. Don’t over think it, but take time to really look at what you have, what makes them work together and why you chose those images over any others.
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