Avisualsociety disucsses Portfolios

This is a great post from someone who actually works with photographers and portfolios. He has opinions backed up with examples. This is a must read.

Avisualsociety : A camera alone does not make a picture. To make a picture you need a camera, a photographer and above all a subject. It is the subject that determines the interest of : "And I understand the need to make your portfolio stand out in the crowd, especially if it’s sitting in a pile of other books. But try not to go overboard. There are so many examples of this…one portfolio I’ve had to send out in the past was 16 x 20, clad in steel plates that weighed 20 pounds, that needed a special metal briefcase over everything so that it didn’t break under its own weight…as you can imagine that portfolio was doing nobody any favours. And I mean nobody, not the messenger, not the poor art buyer who had to spend 5 minutes opening it, not the photographer who has to pay extra fees for overweight loads…you name it. Another portfolio I remember was so complicated in its actual construction (it had a heavy, white, hard plastic cover, that got dirty pretty quickly) that its hinges kept breaking and the only way to have them repaired was with its original manufacturer…based in New Zealand. As you can imagine that book never made it out of the agency very often."