How to Succeed in Commercial Photography : Insights From a Leading Consultant

globally, adds, “Photographers need to resist the urge to chase

the latest trend or throw in images that stray from their vision.

Buyers don’t want to try to hit a moving target; they want to

know that they will hit the mark with you. An inconsistent vision

will not prove to the buyer that you are ‘well-rounded,’ it will

simply confuse them.”

Confusion is not your goal. Clarity is.

In order to develop effective vision-based portfolios, samples

that will resonate with buyers, you will need to understand how

buyers think and how they match assignments with photo talent.

REFERENCE TOOLS FOR

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Many buyers do not buy from Web sites. They use Web sites as

reference tools to call in portfolios. A buyer with a pending assign-

ment may go to your site, see work that looks appropriate, and

choose to call in your book, among fifty others, to look at and

assess its appropriateness for the assignment. This is the prevailing

practice among buyers when hiring for mid- and top-level assign-

ments. However, before your book can be called in, you need to

have created an opportunity to be considered for an appropriate

assignment. Marketing tools such as direct mail, visual e-mails,

and Web sites will act as conduits, giving a client glimpses of your

vision. Another potent and underused option is an in-person or a

drop-portfolio appointment. These are powerful opportunities

that enable you to create portfolio presence before a need arises.

Showing your print portfolio to buyers before they have the

need for your services enables you to develop visibility with

prospects in order for them to consider your book when an

assignment is pending.

You will need to develop a print book for this option.

Despite what many photographers will tell you, viewers

(while hard to reach) are still willing to see your book. Getting

in front of buyers is a chance to bring your personality into the

equation and provides an opportunity for viewers to experience

your images as more than one-dimensional, icon-sized photos

on a flat screen. Photography is tactile and needs to be felt and

experienced, not just glanced at.

CHAPTER7 / DEVELOPING AVISION-BASEDPORTFOLIO

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