Image selection for a folio
NathanPhoto – Portfolio Thoughts
The process of archiving/website/sorting images has led to a few thoughts in the act of choosing a set of images that resemble a coherent body of work that then could be used as a portfolio, web presence and as saleable archive. Now I appreciate that those vehicles have 3 very different purposes so choosing images that would fit all of them is as difficult as deciding what to wear to go out in a Manchester June, but I think that they will have overlaps and explore-able options.
As has been said before I covered such a wide range of work in my career that trying to piece it all together is a difficult one, even the decision on grouping umbrella titles is a difficult one.
With the new site thought I’d play a little clever and do three overarching ones called:
people / places / paraphernalia
With the idea that any images fall into at least one of those categories but as ever It’s been difficult deciding which ones go where…here’s some of the questions..
a) Should a shot of Kanye West performing at the MEN arena go into people or places section, as it’s a very well-known person but they are here locally??
b) A street image taken on the streets of Stockport work in the places section even though it’s got people (and a pigeon!) in it?
c) Does one of the pictures from my one glove series go in the paraphernalia section, as it’s a capture of a…for want of a better word, a thing?
d) Isn’t there a lot of imagery in the people section so should the next ones go into the places section regardless?
Those answers are all part of the process of the section for online, so now that’s underway (but will probably take years!). I’ll start moving sideways to work on a printed portfolio edit. I’ve always had a mixed response to my printed versions, sometimes people look at them with hushed tones, other time with something akin to disgust, I also remember a time that I was once told my work was so disparate it made for a difficult portfolio viewing!!!!
Thinkings about printed material in this day and age.
a) Do you still need a printed folio?
b) What is its purpose?
c) Who is going to see it?
One other thing I’ve been thinking about recently is the environmental costs of work, especially if the printed material is only going to sit there unseen by anyone..
Putting it together as a printed folio or even an iPhone folder is still an interesting exercise though. The major consideration I’m having is what style of work to promote and if I should have separate folio for each subject.
As always there are many points of view on this, so so many people giving advice, only put in 15 images, put the strongest one at the back as people look at the back and work forward, put your strongest work in the middle, put some weaker ones in to show the strength of the good ones etc etc etc.
One that I believe should be most prevalent is the audiencing aspect, drawing upon my recent advice to students is:
Who are you showing it to and why?
Obviously if I take my own advice then it gets a little convoluted as I can answer the questions and because I know my work so well, so it descends into a confused concerto of what if’s and buts etc. I need an editor or agent’s help at that stage l think!!!
Every blog needs an image so adding into the discussion is the choice of the single image to represent NathanPhoto as well as what is represented here, drawing on the archive, shooting something new, selecting stock theme and going with that or just a random image that could possibly fit depending on who was looking at it?
What choice, what decisions, what, what what…..
I will blog about significant images and single image choices soon, so I’ll wait to expand on that discussion till then.
I did this in suitable random ways I put together images that I thought summed up, at one stage or another, the NathanPhoto journey and then used an online random number picker to choose one from this..
This was taken as one of my very first major projects when I was at Burton-on-Trent FE college in Rolleston, it was a project based on Zoos and places where you could see animals. I was mainly looking at the interactions between people and the animals and as they were all looking a certain way it was backs of head but this image I believed was an interesting capture. Thoughts?
Thanks for reading..