part will need to be put forth, financial resources will need to
be committed, and you will work harder than you have ever
worked before.
Photographers come to this juncture at different times and
for many different reasons. What is it like to go through the
process of creating an entirely new book? How does it feel
to have a completed book in your hands? How do clients react
to your new and wondrous tool? I posed these questions to two
photographers that I have worked with. Both of the photogra-
phers highlighted below are established but had never created
a new portfolio before.
Zave Smith, an established still-life shooter based in
Philadelphia, decided to photograph people and needed to
develop a new vision as well as build a new portfolio. Ed White,
an architectural shooter located in British Columbia, had a vast
body of existing work that needed to be edited and paginated.
Both shooters worked incredibly hard to develop a portfolio
that spoke their visual language.
Before he built his new portfolio, Zave Smith was tired of
watching his still-life business stall. He was enjoying his
relationships but felt creatively stif led. Not satisfied to sit back
and let all that he had created unravel, he decided to go back
to the basics and began to analyze what was not in alignment.I looked at the industry and saw a huge shift
toward lifestyle photography in the advertising and
corporate arenas. “Still life was still being assigned but
I was losing more jobs monthly to stock then ever
before. In addition, I realized that I was up for a new
visual challenge. It had been quite a while since I had
taken on the responsibility of creating a new direction
for my work.
In addition, I seem to have reached the invisible
ceiling in my career. When I showed my book around,
people would smile and nod their heads but they did
not call with the jobs. I had enough work to keep me
going but I felt like I was treading water and the view
from my part of the lake was getting extremely
boring.CHAPTER8 / BUILDING ANEWPORTFOLIO: PHOTOGRAPHERSSPEAKChapter 08.qxd 6/27/07 9:04 PM Page 49