"Reid State Park, Dusk", Copyright Jim Nickelson
I recently attended my first formal portfolio review event down in Boston a few weeks ago (the New England Portfolio Reviews) and I thought many photographers might find my experience, and the results of my research, useful as they consider whether portfolio review events make sense to them and for their careers. Many people, both before and subsequent to my first review, have asked me questions about this subject, so I’ve organized things in a FAQ-type format. Heather Frederick of VoxPhotographs previously asked me to contribute my thoughts (along with those of two other photographers) to her article from the perspective of a reviewer of the same event, and that article is well worth reading.
What are portfolio review events?
Portfolio review events are a series of short portfolio reviews where, typically, a photography industry professional reviews the portfolios of a series of photographers for a relatively brief amount of time (typically about 20 minutes per photographer). Most reviewers are professionals such as gallery owners, museum curators, editors, publishers, and the like – basically the types of people you really want to see your photography. The events last anywhere from a morning to multiple days, so you can see quite a few reviewers in a relatively short amount of time. Most of the events are first-come, first-served until they reach their maximum number of photographers, but some events such as Review Santa Fe are juried. I’d recommend regularly checking out something like Mary Virginia Swanson’s invaluable photo marketing blog to keep up to date on upcoming events across the U.S. and world.
What do I gain from going to one of these events?
First and foremost, you gain exposure — and concentrated exposure at that, albeit brief — to people who may be important to your career. I believe it is not realistic to expect to come out of your first portfolio event with a gallery, exhibition, book deal, or job, but it certainly does happen. A better way of thinking about it is that it can begin a long-term relationship with some of the reviewers with whom your work resonates. I don’t know of a better way of getting in front of this group of people.
Another benefit for me was going through the process of editing my body of work to create the portfolio. Editing your work is a subject worthy of many articles by itself, but it is certainly beneficial to most to go through the intellectual process of choosing, sequencing, and most importantly, removing photographs from your portfolio. I learned about my work preparing for the review and, maybe even more importantly, during the review process itself. There is nothing like putting your work in front of strangers (and perhaps trying to explain it) to help clarify its strengths and weaknesses.
And lest we forget, the reviews themselves may provide invaluable insight into your work or tips on how to present or where to go next. My reviewers definitely made comments that provided insight to my work and helped me better understand the relationship between the images — as well as which ones were not a good fit. We can all learn something from the thoughts of others, even if ultimately you decide the advice or thoughts were not useful or correct. I’m sure every photographer who does these events has a similar story, but in my first five reviews, two people pointed out one particular image as being the least successful of the portfolio while one other chose that same image as their favorite. Nobody is right or wrong, but it does give me an opportunity to think about the place of that photo in my portfolio and why it was singled out by three of the five reviewers.
Yikes, these are expensive, are they worth it?
"Reid State Park, Late Afternoon", Copyright Jim Nickelson.
They can be mighty expensive, with entry fees, travel, portfolio preparation, leave-behinds all costing potentially significant amounts of money, but I do think they are worth it. If you are at the point where you want and need to get in front of industry professionals, this is about as good as investment as you can make in your photography career. Just make sure that you get the benefit out of it by properly preparing as well as following up.
What should I do before I go?
Research. The value you get from the reviews will likely be much higher if you learn about the reviewers before choosing them and before meeting with them. If you know what a reviewer can do for you, it is much easier to gear your presentation to that end.
Prepare your portfolio. Most people recommend 12-20 images or so for your portfolio and I think that is good advice. I went with 20 and a few less would have been better. My portfolio was more of a greatest hits portfolio, but I’d recommend a more tightly focused portfolio that is more project-based – many reviewers seem to prefer that and it provides the opportunity for more meaningful commentary.
I also recommend printing reasonably large prints (I did 16″x16″) and printing them well. I’d also recommend just having the prints loose instead of in sleeves — you lose the protection and that feeling of preciousness, but you also lose valuable time in having the reviewers remove the sleeves or, even worse, have them view your prints with a piece of plastic over the top and thus have a barrier between the reviewer and your prints. Your time is short so make as good of an impression as you are able — large prints, expertly printed, and easy to handle. A back-up portfolio or two with other bodies of work are also good if the reviewer moves quickly or doesn’t seem interested in your main body of work.
Prepare marketing materials. You should have something with contact information, of course, as well as a CV or resume in the event somebody wants that. The reviewers receive tons of leave-behinds at each event and most of that gets recycled or trashed, so I recommend making something that is very much worth keeping. I didn’t really have anything like this for my reviews and I wish I did – next time I do one I’d like a small Blurb book or even a small fine art print to leave so that the reviewers are more likely to keep my associated contact information.
How to conduct the review itself?
Besides the hopefully obvious recommendations of being punctual, professional, and organized, I’d recommend letting the reviewer talk as much as possible unless it is clear they really want you to direct the conversation. You are paying for their time and thoughts and if you talk through your twenty minutes you won’t get much nearly as much out of it.
Remember also to be flexible. If you can tell the reviewer isn’t getting much out of your primarily portfolio, I’d recommend getting through it and going to one of your back-ups. If you wanted to talk about representation and they talk about an exhibition opportunity, I’d roll with it and try to take advantage of what the reviewer wants to talk about.
Afterwards, follow-up with the reviewer. Everybody seems to have a tough time doing this, myself included, as once you are done you are exhausted and ready to catch up on everything else in your life and work. Without follow-up, the reviewers may just move on to others – there are a lot of photographers out there, so make it as easy as possible for the reviewer to stay in touch and to follow your career.
What do others think about portfolio review events?
This article is focused primarily on my thoughts, but of course many others have also tread this ground before. Mary Virginia Swanson has a great summary of her thoughts on portfolio reviews for free, and her book (now a $5 e-book) is one of the best investments you can make in your photography career. Photolucida has gathered a great PDF of tips from their reviewers and photographers – a must-read. Michael Kirchoff on the value of a portfolio review. Bill Vaccaro’s excellent thoughts on portfolio reviews, courtesy Dalton Rooney. Jorg Colberg of the excellent Conscientious blog collected reader thoughts on portfolio reviews here, here, and here. The Griffin Museum of Photography also collected tips and recommendations on these events in this PDF.
Please comment if you have your own experiences you’d like to share about these events, or if you have any questions.
