Building Your Portfolio

How does building your portfolio begin? One day you take one picture of a car, a reflection, a waterfall, a pattern in the sand, or a portrait. One shoot, one image, one merit award at the local photography club. How does this one outstanding moment turn into a body of work? That is, a portfolio that hangs together, each photo relating to the next. When you view a portfolio, each image has some to say, something to offer, but it is the whole, greater than the sum of its parts, that makes a lasting impression.

 This November, I set myself a project to build a set of calendars and note cards that I can give to family and friends. As I went through my ‘award-winning’ photos, I had a difficult time identifying even 12 images that stood as a whole. I was frustrated to find only small collections of images from one genre or style that I could piece together. I was in this frame of mind as I picked up the latest edition of Lens Work edited by Brooks Jensen.

Lens Work, http://lenswork.com, is one of my go-to sources for inspiration. Each month, a small 100-page 8 ½ by 7 inch B&W publication arrives with several project portfolios from various photographers. Included with their work are a short interview and a statement from the artist. As I study each project portfolio, I am reminded that to build a portfolio takes some amount of planning and pursuit.  The latest Lens Work, No 91, includes the project portfolio Auto-Reflective by Robert Hecht; a series of images of reflections on cars. In the artist’s statement, Robert Hecht comments that the images were taken over a twenty-year span based on his fascination with reflections on cars. The cameras he used span across both the film and digital age. Impressively, this collection maintains a certain consistent style and approach which form a visual connection. Each image includes not just an interesting reflection, but also a very visible and clearly recognizable piece of the car. It is not just about reflections, it is about reflections on cars where the car and the reflection together make the art.

As I read of Mr. Hecht’s 20-year pursuit of this simple subject matter, I realized that I’ve been pursing my own photographic passions for only a very short time. I recognized that in order to build the portfolio of my dreams, I would need to continue on my photographic journey with more specific deliberate intent. Sometimes I should shoot a new subject with carefree abandon to explore new ideas, but I must also take the time to plan, mature, and complete the ideas that have already begun to emerge.

In our society, we have a tradition of starting each New Year with an evaluation of the past and a resolution for the future. It provides us with an opportunity to evaluate our passion for photography and resolve, with patience, to build our portfolio. Our opportunity to turn one season's worth of spring flowers into a bouquet; one tree into a forest; and one portrait into one hundred faces.