Portfolio: Review Feedback

As mentioned on a previous post, I decided to show just one series of work, I thought that this would give me a better more defined idea of how to edit down a portfolio using advice from tutors and peers. I chose to just use the metal work series due to my recent focus on this piece of work, I knew that I had a solid piece of work within the hundreds and hundreds of photographs that I have taken at the factory over a series of years. 

It was very hard to edit down to my favourite images, or the ones that would be most suitable for my idea. Due to my idea being based around the praise of this declining industrial subject, I needed to choose images which best portrayed that. I finally chose the final 7 or 8 images then went to the new printing company that I have been working with recently. The printer said that he may lighten up the images using photoshop if they came out over or under in terms of brightness. This was great because he was able to see how light a professional would like to view them, I had to trust him on this. 

The final prints came out really well, I chose to ask him to print them semi-gloss instead of high gloss or any other style. This was due to myself finding it hard to see images in exhibitions or portfolios which are printed in high gloss due to light shining on them.

I them had to mount the new prints into my old/current portfolio. I have had this portfolio for several years, since college and I didn't really know of any other styles of portfolios. This is where the portfolio feedback/ review session came in handy. The first thing that was mentioned to the group during the feedback session was the appropriateness off an individuals portfolio, it had to be suitable for the target audience together with a whole load of other factors. One thing that I would like to mention is that this exercise was set 1 week before we had to show the portfolio, giving not much time at all for editing, printing and buying a portfolio. I had to work with what I had and could do in the time scale, as I can imagine I will have to do in my future career. I was very open for others critique and advice to advance my interim portfolio.

There were a group of around 10 peers and 1 staff member and we were all putting ideas toward the person showing their portfolio, it really got the ideas flowing!

When it was my time to show my portfolio, I started by giving an overview of who I intended this pitch to be towards and also a short summary of what the project of work was about. I said that this pitch would be towards a gallery curator, possibly at a working history museum or a metal work museum. Something along those lines. This portfolio pitch also helped me to cover another point mentioned in my PDP, speaking and presenting myself in front of others. 

As soon as I opened my portfolio, someone mentioned about how shiny the individual sleeves are, this made it hard to see the images from certain lights. I have included a picture of the glare on my portfolio to illustrate this.

A tutor mentioned the possible use of polypropylene photo sleeves, these are a higher quality sleeve for photographic prints. I was then told about the London Graphics Centre, a great company for portfolio supplies and such. I have looked on their website and have found some of the sleeves mentioned, I will order some as soon as I can afford them.

The next thing that was mentioned about my portfolio was that the actual portfolio book/ holder wasn't of that expected in the photographic industry, I was then told that although it is accepted as a valid way to show photographs, a photo box would be more suitable for my work. I then looked online for the boxes and found some beautiful cardboard extra coated black boxes, also from the London Graphics Centre. There was an A3 one for around £50, I will be looking further into this at the end of university when I will be expected to have more of a professional looking portfolio. I may also consider the possibility of downsizing my portfolio to A4 as a tutor mentioned in the session. As long as the prints are of a high enough quality and the sleeves are decent then I would be prepared to use a smaller portfolio. The only reason why I chose to have a fairly large A3 portfolio is because I wanted to give the viewer a similar (larger scale) view of how I would like the images to be exhibited. By this I mean that I would want the images to be around size A1/A2 at an exhibition space, having a larger than usual portfolio gives this sense of large format to the work. Below is a screenshot from the London Graphics Centre website of a possible new portfolio for my work.

One other point that was raised when I presented my portfolio was that it was some what unorganised (due to it being turned around so quickly), it was apparently awkward to have to see an image in portrait then having another landscape image next to it. I now see that having the images all the same orientation would be better. 

The actual quality of the prints were perfect, I will be using the printing company again!

One very important thing that I took away from the session is that I need to use a very impacting image or one of the best images for the first and last images in my portfolio. This is because these are the pages that are looked at the most usually. 

Overall I learnt a lot about how to put a professional portfolio together, in terms of editing and aesthetics. One thing that people didn't mention was the choice of photographs, this shows me that they thought that the images worked well together and helped to portray my feelings. Below is an example of when the orientation is wrong and the viewer is forced to turn their head to view the image, I will consider this in the future.

All together, a great session!!