The letter

One letter a week, starting soon.

The week's signal, what the makers shipped and what the reviewers found, and the editor's note. No tracking, no ads, nothing else.

We keep your address, your language and the date you joined, nothing else. Every letter has a one-click unsubscribe link that deletes the record.
The working photographer3 min read

LESSON 77

Building a portfolio

Fewer, better, and aimed at someone.

IN THIS LESSON

  1. What a portfolio is for
  2. Print, screen and website
  3. In practice: choosing the pictures
  4. In practice: order and upkeep

What a portfolio is for

A career portfolio documents a person's work, skills and achievements in more depth than a CV, and serves as evidence of what they can do and might do next. For artists and photographers it is mostly the work itself. The source describes an artist's portfolio as something taken to interviews, conferences, galleries and other meetings to show the work and the kind of work the artist does. It notes that such portfolios usually hold about ten to twenty pictures of the artist's best work, and that some artists keep several portfolios to show different styles for different kinds of job.

Print, screen and website

Portfolios used to live in binders and boxes. Today most photographers keep one online as well, often a personal website with statements, contact details and experience, and the source notes that creative professionals use portfolio websites to present work in a more professional way. Many also use social platforms and hosted portfolio services. A physical book or a box of prints still matters for some meetings, such as with galleries, publishers and some commercial clients, because a print shows qualities a screen cannot. Lesson 72 covers printing.

In practice: choosing the pictures

This section is working practice. Start from the audience: a wedding couple, an art director, a gallery and a magazine editor each want something different. Pick the kind of work you want to be hired for, not everything you can do. Twelve strong pictures beat forty mixed ones, and one weak picture lowers the rest, because viewers judge you by the worst frame they see. Show a consistent eye: similar colour, tone and approach. Ask two people whose taste you trust to cut the selection further. Lesson 69 on culling applies here with extra force.

In practice: order and upkeep

Also practice. Open and close with your two strongest pictures. Sequence the rest so each picture leads to the next, by colour, shape or idea, and so that the set has rhythm, with wide and close, busy and quiet. Keep captions short: place, date, client if you have permission. On a website, make the pictures large and the contact details easy to find, and check how it looks on a phone. Update the portfolio every few months, replacing older work with better new work, and keep a separate portfolio for each kind of client you want to reach.

Try it today

  1. 01Write one sentence describing the client you most want to work for.
  2. 02Pick thirty of your pictures that suit that client.
  3. 03Cut them to twelve, then ask two trusted people to remove two more each.
  4. 04Put the final set in order with the strongest first and last.
  5. 05View the set on a phone and on a large screen, and fix anything that reads badly.