Ira is correct to send his total portfolio with images that
may speak to the assignment, as buyers at this stage are looking
for your vision as applied to their subject at hand.
Your Web site is the other essential tool that communicates
your vision. It amazes me how many photographers still treat their
Web site as a storage depository for every image they have shot
rather than developing a site that contains a solid body of work.
Your Web site should have a gallery section that mirrors your print
book. If buyers come to your Web site first, looking for a specific
vision to match their assignment, and they see what they are look-
ing for, they will call your book in. If your book is disconnected
from the images on your site, you’ve lost the assignment. If your
print book has only a smattering of the images that attracted them
in the first place, you can bet that at least one if not three or four
of the other fifty books called in has deeper content than you do,
and the job may be awarded to them. It is vitally important that
your print book and the main gallery on your Web site match.ADDING PORTFOLIOSAdditional print portfolios can be added to your mix if the
content is relevant to the vision that you are presenting. For exam-
ple, if you are a portrait photographer and you have created a per-
sonal project of portraits on the ballet or for a nonprofit organi-
zation, or you have been developing portraits as you travel the
world, your additional images in a separate photo book or section
in your main print book would make sense. However, if you love
to shoot still life and you want to add a section of still-life images
because “maybe someone might need them,” forget it. Adding
your still-life images will, at best, just confuse your buyers; at worst,
it will give them the message that you are not confident enough
in your portraits that you felt you needed to add a still-life section.
The messages that your print portfolios communicate are
critical to your success. While your visuals and the presentation
of them communicate your professionalism and, to some
degree, your personality, it is your willingness to explore, devel-
op, and exhibit a singular vision that will determine your failure
or success in landing new accounts!CHAPTER7 / DEVELOPING AVISION-BASEDPORTFOLIOChapter 07.qxd 6/25/07 7:15 AM Page 47