Portfolio Presentation: Dos and Don’ts

Showing your work face-to-face with a client, a photo editor or an agency art buyer, is rewarding and daunting. Effective online marketing and self-promotion works, but nothing quite beats showing your portfolio in person. The goals being to build a personal relationship with the client, get positive feedback, and ultimately get hired. Below are some tips on what to do and not do once you’ve a foot in the door. This is partly based on my own experiences- I’ve looked at over 1,000 portfolios- and from talking to many clients over the years.

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-Do your research on the client. If it’s a magazine or website, familiarize yourself with the sort of content and images they publish. People like to be flattered, so praise something that you’ve seen in a previous issue: “ I really like the story you did in the November issue, X’s images looked beautiful.” This shows that you’ve done your homework, appreciate their brand, and the work of other photographers.

-Make sure that your images fit in with the client. A parenting magazine won’t be interested in images of doom and destruction, a health company won’t want to know about a cigarette ad that you worked on.

-Clients are busy people and the average portfolio session lasts around twenty minutes. Not a lot of time to show your life’s work, so this is where sharp and incisive self- editing comes into play. There is no set number of how many images you should show, but my preference is somewhere between 30-50 prints.

-You read that right: PRINTS. Clients stare at images online all day; they will appreciate handling an actual photograph.

-Now comes the tricky part of picking what you show and how you show it. Again there are no hard and fast rules, but my inclination is for some kind of consistency in theme or style. A portfolio is a book and the images give it a narrative. This means not jumping around from subject to subject, or showing your 50 favorite images of all time, because they simply won’t relate to each other. The client needs to see how you can develop a story and get an idea of your sensibility. A portfolio of 40 images divided into three to four themes or subjects is a good balance.

-Make sure that the work is fairly current. Anything older than five, maybe even three years is just out of date.

-A short, informative caption can go a long way. If you are showing previously published work then credit the art director and photo editor. It shows the future client that you are a natural team player.

-Take praise and criticism with grace. For example: if someone compliments something in your portfolio, accept it. I once praised someone’s photo and his response was: “ Really, you like it? I don’t think it’s a great picture at all.” Then why my friend is it in your portfolio? By the same token, no one likes their work being criticized. Your images are rightly very important to you, yet you’ve sought that person’s opinion, so constructive comments delivered with civility, should be taken on board. Repeatedly challenging their opinion won’t help.

-Let them look at the photographs in relative peace; they won’t want to hear the story behind each image.

-After the meeting, drop them a thank you note in the mail. It’s those little personal touches that go a long way.

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