The Agent at AVS (here) weighs in on the important issue of portfolios (So did Jackanory (here) but his is more about your style of photography) and I couldn’t agree more with all the points made. He mentions a massive heavy portfolio that was making the rounds awhile back that everyone remembers but no one seems to recall what was on the inside plus it always makes me think when a book is really over the top that someone is compensating for something.
Black, leather bound (possibly the wax), not too big and not too small with 25-35 pages (guessing since I never counted), embossed with your name. Find it here (link).
I seriously doubt having an incredibly original book would ever get you a job but not having a decent one will certainly be a mark against you. In the end all that matters is the photography.
I’m more of a website person–clearly–so I don’t really need to see a book but the oddest thing happened to me a couple weeks ago. Two photographers in a row came in and their books were quite a bit better than their websites. Must be because they tailored the book specifically for me and now I’m suddenly seeing some problems with the website portfolio.
Before sending the book back I always make sure and huck a promo in the trash. Photographers seem to like that better than my previous practice of not grabbing one.
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I’ve always been told that your book and your web page should have similar work but not the same images repeating each other. To me I don’t really understand sending a book these days, I love bringing my book and showing it to someone for the personal connection which is always the best way to actually get work, but sending a book just seems like a waste. Oh and yes please toss the leave behinds it make us feel good, when you leave them in it’s like you don’t even care enough to toss something in the trash, it’s like getting a flush letter that’s just a former letter.
Images that look good on screen don’t necessarily look good in print and vice versa; although I think the screen in more forgiving. Viewing both gives you more incite into a photographer’s skills – besides, if your a magazine editor wouldn’t you rather see what a photographer can do with the printed page? I also think print (or transparency) is really the only way to judge a photographer’s ability to make a sharp image with rich tone and color.
I guess the problem that I fear is that everyone’s monitor is set to a different birghtness. My darker stuff looks great on mine, but might look like crap on someone’s monitor that’s set to extreme bright.
just out of interest, how do you feel about printed books, as in those bound rather than having the images placed in a plastic sheath?
Bruce wrote ‘I also think print (or transparency)’ – Negative film yeah, but does anyone shoot on transparency anymore?
As for book v site – you still need both right now. The site is a good first contact thing sometimes, but then its nice to go over the book with someone. If someone likes the work on the site they will still usually call your book in.
@2: and nice prints don’t always transfer well on the 4 color press but yeah the quality of the prints is important. I love a good print. Lots of ftp’ing going on these days.
@5: Printed books are great too but it seems like they would get ruined faster.
I have no idea why but lately it seems the only people interested in seeing a portfolio are ad agencies. All my magazine clients have been hiring me directly from my website.
“huck a promo in the trash”
love the honesty.
I’ve seen everything from a barbed-wire/cowskin portfolio that weighed roughly 15lbs. to a live salamandar or gecko or some poor thing peering out of the FedEx box at me when I got a first round of books called in.
If you’re going to send a book, make sure the prints are worth stealing. If you’re going to send a URL, make sure it’s easy to navigate. But above all, make sure your book is amazing at ONE thing. I have a mental rolodex that I flip through when I have an assignment in front of me and it’s comprised of books I remember. That’s where I start – it’s not always where I end up awarding the job, but you’ve got a leg up with a book that shows how good you are at one particular thing. Own that one particular thing. I know that you know how to shoot product on seamless. Don’t show that to me in your book unless that’s what you OWN. Now, what you’ve chosen to own may not be what I’m looking for in this project, but I’ll be damn sure to remember you for the next.
And Sweet Jeezus – if you’re gonna send a salamandar, make sure it’s got a little salamandar bed and a little salamandar food in the FedEx box. That poor little guy only lasted a few days after the trip from Miami to New York…
Photo Editor wrote:
“and nice prints don’t always transfer well on the 4 color press but yeah the quality of the prints is important. I love a good print. Lots of ftp’ing going on these days.”
I’ve always been curious about this. There’s nothing more luscious than a nice print in your hands, but it’s always seemed sketchy to send a print for CMYK magazine reproduction. What would happen — would some guy in the art department just slap it down on an Epson flatbed scanner, and set the Epson to “automatic”, and hope for the best, (dust and all, on the glass)?
As nice as a print is, it still seems so much better, at least in theory, to burn a CD with the digital file on the disc, and send along a guide print for matching color and density.
Yet, as you say, it seems more and more, clients dont even have time for that — they just want it FTP’d by this afternoon, put on their server. So when this happens, there’s no physical reference for the way the photographer intended the color/contrast/density.
How do you find it works best, in your magazine, in your situation? Are there still skilled prepress guys, who can save the subtleties of a nice print?
[…] A Photo Editor also has a entry on the […]
i’m a simple, midwestern wedding photographer, so ignore my ignorance:
it seems nobody ever gets their name embossed on the binding. seeing as your book will spend the majority of its days sitting sideways on a shelf, wouldn’t this be ideal for it to make use of that time by reminding people you’re alive? also, not flamboyant.
What about captions for the photos on the website? Does it matter whether it was for a test or for a client?
I have one that I use for personal presentations when I am wearing my designer/photographer hat. I have worn that for so long that I don’t even have a photo site anymore. I will by Monday though…LOL (sure…). However, since I have contemplated returning to the incredible money and fame of commercial photography and doing some homework in the two areas I am planning on, it looks like a ‘dropoff’ book has become necessary. I am going with something very simple – Lost Luggage – and will have a set of three to customize for who it is getting left off with. In the desert here, it doesn’t seem to matter… that’s why I gotta go – at least it matters somewhere.
You can also save a tree if you don’t want to keep the promo. We just want to know that the book has been viewed. I love getting little notes on return. If you don’t have anything nice to say the note can just a noncommittal thank you.
Do you know what i’d like?
I like to see some of shots of all our folios! I never (ever) get to see other photographer’s books! Maybe our lovely ‘photo editor’ could arrange for us to submit photos of our books somewhere, for the inspiration, and knowledge?
Any Takers? It will be fun! (or humiliating!)
Si
p.s. P.E. could also leave some cutting criticism / advice for our efforts!
I agree Mark, we schlep those heavy books through rain, cold, heatwaves, all for one little note. “sucked” “loved it” “don’t quit your day job” “go back to college” “take your meds” “you’re the next annie leibowitz” anything! Is that too much to ask for?
This is why I don’t leave my computer anymore. Too expensive and time consuming to print and deliver a book and not even get a comment or a handshake.
“Before sending the book back I always make sure and huck a promo in the trash.”
Hahahah!!!
Mark & amcc – no kidding. It has been such a buyers market for such a long time that common courtesy is now extremely rare. For buyers, they don’t have to care if your effort is acknowledge even in the smallest way. But you know what? It’s just the way it is, so being offended or disappointed is out of the question.
@10: Prepress works for the Advertising department these days so the best bet is always a color corrected file and proof. If there’s time we can always whip the prints into shape… there’s never time anymore.
@12: captions aren’t necessary. A separate clients and tears section is.
@14: Yeah, the note is a nice touch.
I know squat really about digital work, but I’ve been trained to print color and black and white by hand. As such, my book (which is a Lost Luggage Ice Nine that I’ve had for a couple of years) is all prints made by my own two hands.
The few places around me that I shopped it to seemed to indicate that no one left in the free world was interested in film or images produced on film.
So what does a decent print say about the photographer in the age of digital stuff? And how many copies of said book should I keep on hand?
cool toss the promos.. the folio?? commi red, pinko, or black who cares about the actual book or type of website. if you got the GOODS inside either, noboby can deny you. Great work could come in shoes box and the job will be waiting.. kinda like radiohead. Those guys could fart in a bag and i would buy it.
‘the beat goes round and round’
A Photo Editor wrote:
“@10: Prepress works for the Advertising department these days so the best bet is always a color corrected file and proof. If there’s time we can always whip the prints into shape… there’s never time anymore.”
======
Oh, I get it now. Pretty slick. You just need the digital TIFF files for reproduction in the magazine, but you need the large, juicy, 16×20 prints for your apartment personal collection, huh? You don’t really use the prints for anything other than inspiration for the layout, but still, I guess if Anton Corbijn was gonna Fedex me a boxful of 16×20’s, I wouldn’t say no either!
As for those thrown away promos, we’re gonna sick that Marni woman ArtBuyer from Weiden Kennedy on you. She was brutal about “saving paper”. She looked like a tough cookie, if you ever crossed her.
Back in the day I interned for Quintana Dunne at Elle Decor. She wouldn’t let a single portfolio leave the floor with out a personal note from her tucked inside.
Of course, I can only imagine Elle Decor sees many fewer portfolios than some publications, but leaving a note is such a great thing to do and it only takes about five seconds.
i try to always leave a note for people dropping books at our agency. even if the work is either not right our outright bad. unless it’s a photographer that has dropped their books off many times and just. won’t. get. the. hint.
It’s a matter of cost. The cost of having a website versus the cost of printing several books to send to editors. But you must ensure that either has you best work and it is organized. I don’t have a portfolio website yet,although people can see my music reportage work in Flickr (not the best of places, but i’m starting to use Photoshelter for the best ones)
http://flickr.com/photos/retorta/sets/
I saw the Andrew Hetherington post with the pic with the rack of black tenba cases and Andrew’s orange kit. And like every other person that saw it I started thinking about “jazzing’ up the case for my book. You know so it stands out on the rack.
I asked a PE that I work with frequently about the matter…. “I could give a shit” was the reply. I also asked a rep/ friend and hte answer was a big NOOOOOOOOO.
That saved me time and money…
So I’m spending my time and $$$ to make more good photos…..
I have heard, putting testimonials from clients and your own quotes on your website leave an impression on potential clients……….. Probably not a good one, though.
Mario – using TypePad or another blog that supports photo albums would be a much better answer than flikr – it’s only $9/month.
personally did no like the post from avs.
i feel like he/she was trying to set too many arbitrary rules to the whole thing.as where jackanary took the words right out of my mouth..
I have the 11×14 leather thing sitting in a cupboard but I shoot mostly landscape so the format is wrong. I always hated the way it looked and could never bring myself to emboss my name on the front – so pompous, so tacky. Reminded me of those christmas stories you can buy with your kid’s name as the protagonist.
I go with screwpost bound plastic sleeves, 10×12 these days. No covers, just best prints front and back with card behind them to stiffen, small label front and back with name and contact and then captions onto the print borders if possible. Weighs nothing, costs nothing, lasts surprisingly well and looks surprisingly good.
Annon 26 – I think you may have missed the message in my original post. Of course its all about the quality of the work first and foremost everything else should support it and showcase it to full effect whether it be your book, website or whatever. My bags are regular House of Portfolio just orange would have been the same cost in black.
I had to laugh when I read some of these posts. I was moving some stuff into my storage unit recently, and found my very first portfolio case. I think I was about 22 when i had it made.
I found this old man, who lived out in the country — a cabinetmaker — and I got him to find me some golden oak, and made a box for me. It held dry-mounted, 11×14, Portriga prints, and there were about twenty images in there, mounted on double weight board. The old man found a piece of oak that was at least twelve inches across, because the top lid of the box was made out of a single piece of wood; not jointed or combined. Then, he mounted this brass lock and key and handle, and the key swung from a gold chain.
Obviously, I was only doing local work then, so it was me, hand-carrying it, into these offices, and I can still remember the THUD that it made when it hit their desk top. It probably weighed fifteen or twenty pounds, at least. You want to hurt somebody — hit them with a piece of oak — it will leave an impression, literally.
A few days ago, when I was moving the box, I opened it, just to peek at the prints. Here we are, almost 26 years later, and the fiber prints still glowed with as much luminance as they did the day I made them. Just try that with some lame-ass Epson printer.
Still, I’m glad (and my rep is glad) that the oak box was retired.
We should have a Photo Rank here, for the weirdest, ugliest Portfolio Cases. Mine would win something, I’m sure.
Bruce, i have a domain and server space rented, but flickr enabled me to have a place to show photos quickly. What has lacked is the time and energy to put together a customised galery, but i’m working on it now.
Reading these reminds me of a meeting I had with a big art director here in London, UK a few years ago. He opened up my portfolio looked at the first image and said ‘ I have a motto, “he who laminates loses”‘.
Yep, all my images were in laminate sleeves. They weren’t a couple of days later.
[…] and a quick email to pe over at aphotoeditor.com, and a quick response of both and email, and a new article about portfolio presentations. There was a quick write up on what they see, what they like to see, and what really grabs their […]
Last month I received an email from a NY photographer who hit me with this old saw, “I know you are busy but please take a look at all of these new concepts I have written.”
He added, “Just a quick look and a thought would be such an amazing compliment.”
Okay, I bit. I spent about 15 minutes looking at his interesting presentation. I replied to his email with extensive questions and comments.
Immediately after sending I get an auto response from his agent on how to book him for work. Ain’t that a killer?
I’m sure he’ll become a superstar and I’ll be the nice gal who finishes last.
Re: trashing the promo card, Thanks photoeditor! I admit to counting the cards when the book goes out and know how many go missing. Even if it goes straight into the circular file, that simple act can make my day – esp from a mag I love + just spent days making prints to show. Very considerate. Just lie to me, baby! Keeps me going!
True story regarding portfolio style vs. content… Few years ago, I was at McCann to show work. Another art buyer was going into a meeting with the client to choose a photographer for a major campaign. In one hand was an enormous folio with 30×40 inch die transfers from a well known NY photog. I think she was actually dragging the case – it was that huge. In the other hand was a single postcard she’d picked up in Paris from a European photographer. Talk about extreme contrast! I always wondered who got that job.
Definitely finding more interest direct through the site these days but like post @1 I think showing your folio in person is so much better than just dropping it off. For both parties.
After all, your client is hiring you as a person as well as a photographer and we all know that the wrong personality can cause the shoot from hell. So ultimately a personal folio showing is their big chance to find out if you’re an ar@ehole or not in person… ;)
J
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