Make Your Portfolio Stand Out in 2024
There has been a seismic shift, even if you didn't notice.
Keeping up with what is going on is almost a full-time job these days.
One agency adopts AI, while another forbids it for fear of copyright challenges that are sure to come in the next 12 months. As digital becomes even more embedded into the entire marketing process, film is outselling itself year after year.
“Be authentic,” is the mantra from a thousand blogs written by GPT.
“Stand out from the crowd,” shout people so mired in conformity that they all dress and look the same. Even more so today.
Photographers who rail against copyright infringement happily infringe on the works of others through an infringer’s dream called MidJourney. Mid-journey to where?
Mediocrity, bland, inoffensive (the rules, man, the rules), milquetoasty fantasy art reminiscent of digital comic books, and fever dreams of youth?
Yeah, whatever.
Some people refer to this era as the digital era. I dunno, maybe they are right.
I am calling it the Conformist Era.
In the conformist era, only one idea is right, only one set of values is right, only one path is the chosen one.
Step out of line, and you are canceled, attacked, mobbed by the ill-informed twitter herds. Or is the little bird actually a crow in disguise so when they mass, they carry the moniker of a murder? A murder of twitter crows?
Sounds about right.
But I am telling you that no matter how much conformity culture tries to come after artists and especially those engaged in the commercial genres, the need to stand out and stand apart has never been more important.
Digital made the actual making of a photograph nearly brain-dead simple. Technology will wipe out most all of the skills photographers developed over the decades.
A new Sony camera eliminates the need to know exposure, DoF, and even focus. Hell, it captures the image before YOU capture the image and makes 300 iterations of it in a heartbeat.
Cool. I guess.
Soooo… like an iPhone on massive steroids.
The changes are coming fast and furious now.
And they cannot be stopped.
The board of OpenAI saw that and tried to stop it, but were ‘convinced’ to stay the course until, well, until the course is revealed.
But we aren’t convened this wonderful Thursday morning to talk about stuff we are not allowed to talk about, cursed murder of crows, be damned.
What we want to chat about for a few moments is the modern portfolio.
Perhaps I should do a before/after presentation.
I will explain what was, what changed, and what is now important.
The Presentation
Before:
A set of standalone ‘hero’ shots put together as a presentation, a collection of your best work showing technical and artistic prowess. From the early portfolios of 30-40 unique prints in a heavy leather book, to the tabs across a webpage opening up to hundreds of images, the standalone image has been important. It mirrored the times. Advertising was king, and the hero image was the emperor.
Now:
Stories take the lead. It is now fine to show a few images from a single shoot. In fact, I think it is important to do exactly that. Instead of a dropdown that goes to “People”, it instead drops down to:
Sara, sculptor
Bob, musician
Harry, politician
Gina, actor
Peeps, my pet crow
Each project delivers a few images to a few dozen.
Why?
Because the need for a ‘hero’ image is not as important as the need for a set of images. From storytelling on social media to having a wide variety of ads for specific publications, the need to be more personal in connection is vitally important.
Showing a prospective client that you can do more than one good shot, tie them together with your style, and deliver a set of images that inspire customers to purchase is like fairy dust.
This will necessitate a totally different approach to shooting, curating, and posting to your website. In fact, it may mean you need a whole new website.
The Portfolio
Before:
Lots of images nearly random in position on the web page. The ‘mosaic’ approach lets the viewer pick and choose the images based on what they were looking for. These were images chosen from the best of the best, and most of the time, they were the single image to represent the project.
Now:
Your portfolio should show the viewer the range of your capabilities. From motion to video to still photography to editorials written and produced by you. If you have some design experience, let it shine with personal projects. A single page of seemingly random images put together by genre is ubiquitous at this point. Find new and exciting ways to present your work.
Remember, the goal of a portfolio is to keep you and your work top of mind. It is not the best tool for getting a gig because many times gigs are not on the plate. So you do what you can to be remembered. And same ol’ same ol’ is not memorable.
Why:
The changing landscape of media. We are now being called on to create media libraries with still images for print, video for YouTube pre-rolls, motion for IG and FB, and myriads of media that marketers are utilizing to move their products.
Where once only a few mediums existed, a thousand different lanes emerged before us.
What to show
Before:
We put the best shots into a folder, chose the order, and put them on our websites with a tab that declared their use for specific genres.
[ People | Places | Things] / [ Food | Lifestyle | Interiors ]
We were photographers, and everyone knows that photographers make photographs, so the images were still shots, produced with maximum care. We make photographs that conform to the genres in our tabs, and our work is easily pigeonholed into one of those slots that everyone loves to slot stuff into.
Now:
Motion first.
One of my members went to a huge European portfolio showing with many art and creative directors from major agencies.
“We love your work, but we don’t hire anyone who doesn’t have motion.” He doesn’t have any motion, but I bet you can guess what he is working on now.
Another member did the same type of agency review in Miami, and the response she got over and over was; “Move the motion work to the top of your portfolio.” She already has wonderful motion work, so she is making some changes to her site to bring those clips to the fore in her presentation.
Another member is combining graphic design skills with her photography, and finding new and rather exciting opportunities for her work. And she puts it right up front in her portfolio.
Creativity is the message for today’s portfolio.
Technical expertise, sure, but at some point it becomes ubiquitous and expected. You don’t have to show them a toaster on a white background, it is expected that you can do that.
Show them how creative you are, even if your work follows traditional styles.
I am working with a photographer in upstate NY. His work is modern, classically styled, and a magazine editor’s dream shooter. He has a creative element that shows up in many of his photographs and is a subtle stylistic trait that will become more and more powerful as he continues to shoot.
People on location is not a new subject, and his approach is not singular. But the body of work he is creating is so much more powerful than a page full of random portraits that the viewer will be captivated by these incredible portraits of average people.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just change up the tread a bit.
(Yes, I know wheels don’t have treads, tires do. But you got the point, right? So gimmee a break.)
When they zig, I recommend zagging.
Everyone is zigging right now.
Time to find your zag and attack it full-on in 2024.
Creativity, real honest creativity, is the unexpected asset.
And this is the biggest change I see.
Before:
We were vendors to the ad and design agencies. We created stuff they wanted under their direction and parameters.
Now:
We are the art directors, the creative directors, the masters of our visual domains. And they come to us to be inspired, and expect us to bring them the inspiring work we do.
This is especially true in the direct client work that is becoming a huge part of many photographer’s client lists.
Now it is up to you.
Take a hard look at your portfolio and ask yourself if it shows your total creativity in such a way as to be a formidable player in the visual arts.
Look for innovative solutions, and don’t be afraid to go into uncharted territory if it feels right.
We will discuss this more in the next year, but know that the best time to start something new is yesterday. We have to settle for second best by starting today.
See you all tomorrow.
When you are ready, here is how I can help you succeed.
Group Mentorship: a small group of photographers who meet to show images, work on their portfolio, and build their businesses with help from a wonderful group. Lifetime membership for one fee.
One-on-one Mentorship: You and me - working together in an intense 6-month push to get you on the way to over $30K in additional revenue. The work we lay down will help you increase and scale your business for years ahead.
The Creative Class: Expand your toolset and become a one-person visual agency capable of pulling in steady and repeated income. If you have questions, let me know, and I will answer them as fast as possible.
Discount codes for In the Framers:
Cohort Discount $197: $1000 | A23CD7E72E
Creator Discount: $100: $197 | 2BA98E4053