Your portfolio is a statement; it’s your way of telling others who you are as a photographer. And, it’s often the basis for someone’s decision to work with you. Your portfolio shouldn’t be a huge collection of good photos, but a concise showcase representing the quality and style of the work you can offer. Sometimes, you’ll want to pull together a specially edited collection of images targeted to a specific client or editor when you’re not sure that the general portfolio will hit the right note. But for the most part, your main portfolio should be the best representation of your work and vision.
With so many places to post your images online, the idea of a single, most important collection might seem strange or even counterproductive. You might think that the more images and collections you have out there, the better your chances are that someone will see something they like and want to work with you. I think there’s some validity to that argument. However, I also think that there should be some way to clearly differentiate your regular work from your best work. There should be some way to share as much of your photography as you’d like while maintaining a clearly defined portfolio so others know what you consider your best current work.
The real power of your portfolio will be its ability to push you forward as you build and improve on it. Reaching for images that are worthy of being labeled your “best work” forces you to stretch your creativity and skill set. For some, getting paid for doing the same shots over and over again with different faces might be enough. But you might want more from yourself as a portrait photographer, and if so, you know your best is yet to come. Each time you add a new and important piece to your portfolio, you’ve taken a step forward in your photography.
Your Body of Work is Your Story
All of your good work, including some of the earlier and less important images, make up your entire body of work; an overall story of who you are as a photographer. It’s your story as an artist, and depending on how much your photography is intertwined with your life, it may be your story as a person, too. You have a special responsibility to your body of work. Think of it as a living thing that parallels your life, is a record of your experience, and defines you as an artist. If you ever feel like you need something to push you through a creative rut, just remind yourself that your body of work deserves to be cared for and maintained. That means you need to keep adding to it.
Your Portfolio is Your Showcase
Your portfolio is a continuously filtered and changing subset of your body of work. It’s a snapshot and showcase of your best and presently most favored work. It’s the product of your art and one of the reasons you need to move forward in your photography.
Your portfolio doesn’t improve when you repeat yourself. Yes, if you’re a professional photographer, you need to earn a living, and clients will often expect you to reproduce some of what you show. But that’s the craft that comes from making the art. The object is to create good work, then to create some new and hopefully better work. The art provides the tools for the craft. Keep adding to the art.
Keep progressing. Don’t shortchange your body of work and don’t forget about your art. If you follow this advice, you’ll have plenty of good pieces to pull from for each version or iteration of your portfolio.
Portfolio Presentation
There are plenty of experts who are willing to give (or sell) their advice about your portfolio presentation. Where it concerns your portfolio, they can offer an opinion on what they see based on their point of view. That’s it. They might suggest you rearrange it, throw some pieces out, make it flow better, tell a story, start strong and end strong, don’t use anything that would be considered “filler,” design for your market, design for a future intended market — you get the idea. Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish with your portfolio, many of these canned suggestions could apply to you.
My advice is simple: Show your personal best. Things like the order of the images, telling a story, etc., are okay to consider, but not everyone who views your portfolio is going to see a story as they quickly flip through your pages or click through your thumbnails. What they will see is a collection of individual images that, when taken as a whole, offer up an idea of your vision and execution.
They will assume that the images you’ve included in your portfolio are what you consider your best work, so make sure that’s the only thing you’re showing. Don’t use your portfolio as proof of your ability to do a job. That should be a given. Your portfolio is about how you are different from everyone else who can take the required photos.
I think it’s okay to have your online portfolio divided up into a small number of categories, too. This is especially useful for general portrait photographers who want to show their best work by subject (e.g., weddings, boudoir, children) since all types of images don’t work well side by side. Many photographers will even break their portfolios up into logical groups even if they specialize in only one or two areas.
Once you have your collection of portfolio images together, you should be prepared to show it in any number of ways, including:
- Website. Make it clean and easy to view on any device. I’ve had clients hire me off viewing my site on their smartphones. Some portfolio hosting services claim to be able to deliver a good viewing experience on many types of devices, but there are sometimes problems with these setups. Fancy features might impress you, but simple is usually best. After all, the most important feature of any portfolio is its ability to display images.
- Tablet. If you have an iPad or similar, you can load your portfolio into one album, or separate albums, if divided by categories. This is a built-in feature. Digital tablet devices like this are becoming increasingly acceptable for showing your work and are more elegant than using a laptop.
- Physical prints. Usually displayed in a classic book cover with or without sleeves. There are differing views about whether or not to use sleeves. I can only say that some of the best working photographers who are showing their books use sleeves. There is just no other way to prevent the marking and tearing of pages and prints as a book makes the rounds. If you’re always able to show your book in person, to clients who are careful about handling your portfolio, then, by all means, feel free to skip on the sleeves.
There are many other ways to present a portfolio, including PDF documents, specialty print items, and print-on-demand books. The print-on-demand (POD) option might be a good choice for drop-off books if your budget allows, and you don’t anticipate making frequent changes to your portfolio.