Your Portfolio

Tell me about your portfolio. I have a collection of images which exists in

about six different places throughout my house. The images are largely

comprised of black-and-white street photography, both film and digital. The

trouble is, there is no consolidating order among these groups of images. How

have you, specifically as street and documentary photographers, organized your

portfolio(s)? Is it a physical thing? Does it exist as a computer disc or as

matted prints? Is it housed in a binder, a box, what? What is necessary to

include in a complete portfolio? Is there an artist statement? Is your

portfolio all street/documentary images, or do those images share the bill

with other types of photographs? How many individual photos are in your

portfolio? What other unique features are present?

 

Michael J Hoffman

I think for anyone approaching his or her work seriously the tasks you ask about are those that take up most of the work. Few people realize this when they start out. I thought it's just running around, snapping. Bzzt!

 

Organization and editing/printing take up most of the time - it's boring, frustrating, and often it's enough to start pulling your hair out, but without the 90 percent drudgery, there can't be the 10 percent that gets you going in the first place. Any good artist will tell you that without working out a certain discipline you can't succeed. As for me, I am a disorganized disaster at the moment, but I will have to work on this soon, as I am just beginning to make somewhat interesting images that I wouldn't want to damage or lose. Archival of your images/negatives is specific to your workflow, and will take a bit of time to work out with trial/error and brainstorming if you want to find things quickly. I remember reading about Friedlander's archival system in the big Friedlander book, which I found very interesting (because of the sheer size of the archive and labor that goes into it without a computer database).

Any amateur who keeps more than 5 images per month is deluding themself. Learn to love

the delete key. After that a 1GB external drive should suffice for a few years.

"Learn to love the delete key."

 

Which, of course, is the part of the editing process. Deleting isn't as easy as you make it seem. You might regret it later. I know I have.

Mine is divided in two parts with the first consisting out of my 'serious' stuff and the second part consisting out of the usual family/friends/day-out/holiday type of snaps.

 

Both are ordered by date with the negatives and slides sleeved in a binder and the digital files on the harddisk of my pc. I make a back-up CD of my digital portfolio once a month.

 

Of all these negs, slides and digital files I have at least one 4x6 print.

 

"Is there an artist statement?" I don't really believe in such statements. I do not want to make a statement when photographing. I just photograph something because in some way I am attracted to it. I am my own judge, if I like the photograph than that's it. I don't really care what the rest of mankind thinks about it. I do however show my portfolio to others every once in a while, it keeps me sharp and critical towards my own work.

"Any amateur who keeps more than 5 images per month is deluding themself."

 

How did you cope with the 'delete' part in the days before digital? By not printing certain negs or by actually cutting the whole neg from the strip and keep the ones you liked as single negs? Just curious.

Burning worked well.

 

I keep a large set of matted portfolio prints, typically 11x14 prints matted to 16x20. When I have to show a portfolio, I create one specific to the venue. I usually do twelve prints in a clamshell box.

 

I create a web gallery of those prints also and give the URL to whoever I show the prints to. This gives them an opportunity (hopefully) to look again. I do a CD if I have to show my work to someone I can't physically visit and send the CD, in addition to the web gallery. I'm not sure why I do this, but I figure it can't hurt.

 

I have found that topical portfolios ("music", "Vietnam") show better than general portfolios except for the more "design-y" type stuff. I haven't found that street sells that well and use only the most graphically strong street shots.

Jeff, just out of curiosity, are you a full time professional? Meaning most of your income from photo?

Organized? Ha! Having reached the age of 36 I've now accepted the fact that I will never be organized and this goes for pretty much all areas of my life.

 

The only time I've put together any type of portfolio was last year when a local library wanted to hold a photography exhibit and asked for submissions (mine of which was rejected).

 

Therefore, my studio apartment is littered with 8x10's on just about any flat surface I can stack 'em on. My mounted 16x20's are leaning against a wall. I keep my negs in those white archival binders which are labeled by year and one labeled W.I.P for my most recent rolls that I'm still making prints from. The rental darkroom I print at recently raised their prices and cut back their operating hours so now I'm paying more for less printing. I have to look at getting set up somehow here at home.

 

People always ask me what I do with these pictures. I'm sure in the back of their mind they think I'm nuts when I tell them I don't do anything with them except maybe re-print them occasionaly to improve on my darkroom skills then they end up in a stack somewhere in my pad. We are such a results driven society that I think for many of them the thought of doing something for the sheer love of it doesn't make a lot of sense. People tell me I need to somehow make money with photography. I was told that twice today in fact. I hate to sound corny but sometimes it's not the destination but the trip that matters most.

"all areas of my life."

 

I guess this is why you are into photography in the first place. The more I look at myself and other photographers, the more I see a trend: They're not very happy people. Although there are some exceptions.

Michael

 

You need to develop a workflow process that suits you. Here is an example.

1. Load all your images onto your computer. Create a folder with suitable subject title. 2. Edit the images down to the ones that you really like. (you need to be ruthless. i.e. keep the ones that you really love, lose the rest). 3. Leave the images alone for a day, just work them through in your mind. Edit this batch again. 4. By now you should have what you consider to be the best of the bunch. Could be 1, could be 100. 5. Work them to the point where you are happy that they are what you wanted them to be. 6. Burn them to CD as a backup. 7. Delete the folder from the computer.

 

A portfolio can consist of as many photogrpahs as it takes to convey a message about your photography to those who are viewing it. If you are multi dimentional in your photography, you would have images in your portfolio that depicted that. Say a couple of Street, a number of portraits, food, interiors,landscapes etc etc.

 

A portfolio can take the form of prints, set in a leather bound or similar substance "book" that hods cellophane sleeves that you can slip your printed images into. And of course slip them out of once the are no longer part of your "A" grade work.

 

You could also have a website set up where you display your work. Less expensive than a collection of "8x10" prints.

 

The decision as to which way to go is yours and it will be the one that makes your life the easiest. Archiving your CD's or prints needs to be done in a systematic manner. This so that you can find your work easily if you need to refer to it or prepare a set of prints.

 

Personally, I have my portfolio of prints in leather bound portfolio. (to show around) A website www.paulhofman.co.za (to refer people to) and I have a CD for each shoot.

 

Another thing, you may also need to caption your images. i.e. in the metadata, capture information that is relevant to the image. Place taken, any critical information about the image, copyright statements etc. in Photoshop. File>File Info.

 

The example above sets out a digital workflow. I follow a similar process for my film photography once I have scanned it. The negatives are then put into sleeves dated, captioned with relevant data and filed in a ring binder file.

 

In conclusion. It is a process and everyone will have a different approach. Find one that suits you and makes your life easy. Most basic photography books will deal with aspect in one way or another.

 

Regards

a lot of good info above, so I won't re-iterate my way....which is similair to a mixture of the above.

 

But I will comment on throwing things out.....DON'T! I found out years ago, that the immediate look may not be the most useful. Sometimes when I looked back after a couple months, I was astounded that I had rejected some things.

 

I also recently converted all my CD archives over to external hard drives (and DVDs).......both scanned film and original digitals.........and was again, amazed at some of the stuff I had ignored years ago. Some was actually better than what I had originally kept as good.

Interesting observation Dan. What common element do you find that makes this trend apparent to you? Is it more in their work, or their personality or maybe equal parts both?

ye, editing a portfolio is really a hard work...

Years ago I made a plan and printed all the stuffs I liked more, and made many books..I started with album selected by years, then for different kind of photography..But keeping it updated was expensive and boring cause you had to find the time for selecting, printing and organizing the books.

When I moved, put all Those books inside a box and leaved them there for years (they are still there..). The same end was decided for my website, removed after many update-headache..now I just put this and that in a blog.

 

Nowadays, I have all scanned and archived on an external HD, in different folders..I can find easily a picture, generally. I make only wall prints when I want, or just prints for giving them away.

 

Now and then I put togheter some book in Freehand with pics and text and I print it digitally in some of the Online services..those go in the library with all the other books, they are smaller and don't ask the viewer to look throug hundred of shots.

Oh, I made some DVDs with music, for the trips..

"Interesting observation Dan. What common element do you find that makes this trend apparent to you? Is it more in their work, or their personality or maybe equal parts both?"

 

A bit of a mix, but it seems they've failed at something major or had a crisis.

 

Let's see, a friend of mine until recently was almost morbidly obese for a long time, but recently found strength and courage to give up both photography(!) and food for a while. Another guy I know is simply an obsessive/compulsive nut who is not willing to accept his problems and get help. He is blaming the society for his problems. He is a former photojournalist who spent a year working for NYT, boy does he have a power trip over that. That's the first thing he says when he meets someone knew. He loves to annoy random people with cameras. Another had a divorce over photography. Another person I know burnt out and quit a comfortable but unsatisfying corporate job, and is now pursuing photography. And I could go on about the people I know.

 

Among the more known photographers? Let's see Winogrand divorced at least once over his persuit of photography, couldn't get over his failed marriages. Diane Arbus was clinically depressed over her affairs/marriage and commited a suicide. Bruce Gilden was married three times(?), and now states he'll never be in a relationship again. He also had an abusive childhood. W. Eugene Smith was a suicidal alcoholic and a nervous wreck with all his other issues. Robert Frank and Walker Evans both felt opressed by and depressed about where the world was/is going, Wegee and William Klein(?) had to survive on the streets. Winogrand stated if he hadn't found photography, he'd be a criminal or a junky. And the list goes on. It seems that photography like music or writing is just a creative outlet for failures. Nothing wrong with that, the greatest things cannot be created without a little of suffering.

Thanks for outting it all in a nutshell Dan. As usual you make a very valid point. Must be all the chemicals associated with photography lol!

Interesting, remote-control analysis, Dan. Alternate POV. I'm sure nobody in any other profession has suffered those things, and no photographers haven't? Let's hear your assessments of current politicians, now?

 

FWIW - Current photo instructors I've run into -- admittedly a very limited number and very small, anecdotal sample -- suggest keeping the base digital file as it came from the camera and working with copies and saving as needed. "Storage is cheap; regret is expensive."