This fact distresses many shooters, but indeed it is a fact of life
and needs to be accepted. Today’s buyers need to be taken by
the hand (visually that is) and led through a portfolio that
quickly tells them what you do and what your visual application
looks and feels like. While I am not at all suggesting that you talk
down to buyers through your images, I am stating that you need
to make sure that each shot in your portfolio has a role to play
in delivering your entire visual message. A book filled with beau-
tiful images that have no continuity or relationship with each
other will not sell.
In addition, your portfolio must contain images that are
appropriate for your target markets. A book of beautiful images
that have little or no commercial applicability is a handicap.
In short, your book needs to deliver your visual and profes-
sional value. I call a portfolio that has been crafted from vision
out, and is commercially applicable, a portfolio to envy.
Today, many photographers can create a portfolio that is a
good example of their work but still not develop a book that
sells. Often photographers have said, “If another person tells
me that they like my work but they don’t know how to use it,
I will scream.” Equally frustrating for talent is the response,
“This is good work, I’ve seen it before, but what do you really
want to do?”
Are clients trying to be difficult? Are they just contrary by
nature? Obviously not. What they are saying is, “Show me some-
thing different and unique to you, but make sure I can use it.”
They are in essence giving you permission to explore, to
experiment, to develop your “visual integrity” and to market it,
while also asking you to know what a commercially viable
product is. It is this marriage between art and commerce that
your book must speak to. This is what a portfolio that sells
accomplishes.
Today’s market requires photographers to create this type
of portfolio. Buyers are no longer looking just for technical
ability. They are searching each portfolio they view, looking for
visual value. It is not unusual (and is indeed most likely the
case) that a client needs one specific look for the project in
front of him or her. Today’s clients are more likely to be less
relationship oriented and more project oriented during the
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