Assembling a portfolio - lots of questions

[jrong]

I can't find any suitable forum to post this in, so here goes....

I am planning to construct a portfolio of prints, comprising maybe 30-40 prints in total. I don't really want to spend too much money, but I understand that most presentation folders and archival materials tend to be on the steep side, so perhaps I should say, I want to do this as economically as possible, but am prepared to pay where it counts.

I don't know the first thing about making a portfolio.

I have a collection of prints, of different sizes. Most are on 8x10" paper, but some are on 9.5x12". Most of them have been cropped to equalise the border widths, so they are really a collection of slightly varying sizes. I know this may look messy, so I do not necessarily want to slip them back-to-back in clear sleeves inside a folder, as the difference in print sizes will be too obvious.

I thought of mounting them on black card but do not know how to mount. Do you glue the print on the card? And where does one get archival matting board in black? I have some black mount board from Jessops but am concerned that it is not archival/acid-free.

So I thought of mounting these on board, and then slipping them into clear plastic sleeves and putting them in an A3 folder, like Secol's presentation folder. At least, this will allow me to assemble something good-looking for slightly less than $100.

Any ideas much appreciated!
Jin

 

[RayPA]

The last time I mounted prints—a long time ago—I used a dry/heat process, wherein I cut a sheet of mounting material to the same size as the print, sat it on the board, tacked down a corner or two, to hold it in place, and put the whole thing into a heat press. Those prints are still mounted to this day!


🙂

 

[sf]

30-40 prints is too many

cut that at least in half

every print should be the same size on the same media (same type of paper)

I'd have this done professionally by an imaging company - some lab - don't put anyting on board unless you are going to put EVERYTHING on board

 

[Andy K]

The last time I mounted prints—a long time ago—I used a dry/heat process, wherein I cut a sheet of mounting material to the same size as the print, sat it on the board, tacked down a corner or two, to hold it in place, and put the whole thing into a heat press. Those prints are still mounted to this day!


🙂

You can dry mount without a press, so long as you have an electric iron. See this thread on APUG.

See also these APUG search results for 'portfolio'.

 

[kaiyen]

30-40 prints is a HUGE portfolio. Keep in mind that a portfolio should be a relatively small, concise presentation of your work. And that you might use a different portfolio for different purposes. So you might have 30 prints to choose from, but you only put 10-15 together at any one time for presentation purposes.

I prefer to overmat everything. Just mounting on board seems unfinished to me. As long as the sizes are close I am generally okay with it (I usually print full frame, which isn't _exactly_ 8x12 every time, either).

allan

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

Jin

I'd try for 20 prints max and a standard size (one that feels comfortable to lug around) maybe 9.5/12" or 12/16"
Silverprint ( www.silverprint.co.uk ) sells very good polyester print sleeves - i wouldn't mount on card as it can damage the print and adds weight to the portfolio. Just slip the print in the sleeve.
Get a slipcase box or a portolio case to protect the prints. Again Silverprint have a reasonable selection of boxes and cases as do Cowing and Wilcox in Broadwick Street. (Cowling & Wilcox, 26 - 28, Broadwick Street, London. W1V 1FG Telephone: 0207734 5781 can't find their URL?) By having the prints loose in the slip case or box, it enables you to change the order of the images and swap different prints as you guage feedback from the people you see.

I'd also only show what your very comfortable with not what you think they want to see. Some work in progress (could be contact sheets etc) is also good talking point.
Getting in to see someone is much more productive than having to "drop the portfolio off and collect it later" but its not always possible. Sadly there is a tendancy in London for companies to ask to you send them an email with your website on (so uploading to something like flickr might be a good starting point)

FileFX ( www.filefx.co.uk) is a great database for lists of Photography Agents, Publishing Media/Design Agencies, and Advertising Agencies

One other point re image order - starting the portfolio with a strong image and ending on a strong image can make a difference. you can always post some thumbnails here on the RFF and ask for feedback

Good luck with it!

Simon

 

[RML]

Jin, what is your intended purpose for this portfolio? A portfolio should reflect its purpose. Applying for a job at the local news paper requires a different portfolio from applying for a job as an assistent to a fashion shooter or landscape artist.

I'm thinking of making a collection of photos for myself. A portfolio of photos that I could use to hang on the walls of my house and change every so often. Plus, it helps me to weed out what I think are the best from the dross.

 

[Toby]

I'd make sure all the prints were the same size and not go overboard on numbers - if you can't convice someone your a good photographer with 20 prints you're not going to do it with 40. Silverprint to my mind is the best place for presentaion materials. They do grey archival boxes that are good for presenting sleeved prints mentioned above.

 

[dreilly]

I'm curious about the print size issue...do you all mean same paper size, or same image size? I'm putting my portfolio together (mixed media: photography, illustration, video) and I printed the prints on my epson on arches infinity and epson enhanced matte, and my aim was to present the image in the strongest possible way. They are all somewhat differently arranged, depending on the image or format (35mm, medium) Is that generally not okay?

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

You don't need archival materials.

Pose as a 'buyer' and cruise past some agencies and scope what they're offering. And get some tips from that.

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

I meant to choose a standard size paper - the images can differ in dimension on the paper but to have the same overall size allows them to be handled smoothly and easily by potential clients.
I agree with Jon archival is not really required unless you are submitting work to galleries then matting/mounting and archival methods would be much more appropriate.

 

[x-ray]

I'm in the process of finishing a presentation to go to museums. I've done so many portfolios and presentations over the years that i can't count them. Each has been a little different depending on the images being presented and who it is going to as well as the trend at the time. Believe me the presentation is atleast 50% of getting your work viewed and accepted. A messy presentation will get you no where. There is a book available by the name of Portfolio or it might be Portfolio and Presentations. I have seen it in Borders book stores.

The presentation I am currently doing will go to museums. The presentation needs to be clean and easily handled on a desk. You want the very finest quality prints, mounting, mats and presentation case. If you're showing your work to get an exhibit or job or whatever you must understand the competition you are facing.

I have spent the past few weeks printing vintage negs from the 60's to the 80's and making the very best prints that I can. All of myprints carry a consistent theme. The prints are no larger than 10 inches on the long dimension and most 35mm images print around 6.5x10 or so. Most do not require cropping but if needed I crop in printing. I also have a few 7x7 inch prints from 120. All prints are silver gelatin toned for perminance and then trimmed and drymounted on 2 ply acid free rag board. I have one of my galleries cutting mats using the same acid free board but in 4 ply. Each print is lightly signed in the bottom right corner and the mat will allow the signature to be viewed. The finished mount will be 11x14 inches. To me and many others this is the max size convenient for someone to view on their desk. Finally they will be presented in a leather covered wooden portfolio case. It's a very clean presentation and very consistent. I might add that I started narrowing my subject matter down from a few thousand negs. I selected about sixty negs and finally printed fifty. I narrowed this down to fourty three and have mounted them and have mats being cut for all. When I get them back Friday I will finally set them all up side by side and narrow the selection to twenty. 20 is the magic number in my book. Bost calls to entry request fifteen to twenty images. Twenty allowas for a good selection without boring the viewer. Most people have only a limited time to view portfolios.

I really do not like prints in plastic sleves.The plastic is like plastic covers on your mothers furniture. Plastic doesn't feel good to the touch and has reflection problems making it harder to view. Plastic sleves in a binder looks cheap. Mats on mounted prints looks like you care and reflects how a print would look in a frame in the gallery. You want your presentation to show that you really care how your work looks and that you really want representation in their gallery or museum. If you dont show this up front then it's assumed that you won't put together a good show. It's going to be much harder to get attention with your work with a half a$$ presentation even if the work is the greatest in the world.

People that view images reguarly know a quality presentation and a quality presentation is the way to get their attention.


http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=790229

 

[Avotius]

I made a small portfolio here for an exhibition, had 20 prints in it and made 150 copies of it for about 400 rmb or 50 dollars. The images were small, but enough for a small little sampler book. Avoid plastic sleaves, its looks cheap.

 

[dreilly]

I also don't really like the plastic/polyester sleeves. Since my prints are on matte paper, it really ruins the velvety richness of the color (or tones of the duotone) prints to shove them in something that at most angles is more of a mirror than a window! I found some adhesive strips (pina zangaro brand) that can attach to one side of the image and hold it in the portfolio, which is a good solution for me. But if my portfolio was just photos I might favor a really nice box and not a binder (even a fancy one) at all. Might be nice to spread images out and next to one another? Just an idea.

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

I think there is a bit of a difference between cheap plastic sleeves that go in the A3/A2/A1 "Designers Portolios" and the archival polyester print sleeves made especially for photgraphs. Bear in mind that if you're making a portfolio to show agencies and that you aren't always there in person then you need to protect the surface of your prints otherwise they come back damaged. Granted that if you are planning to show galleries or museums then presentation would be matted/mounted prints to present them in the best posssible light but my understanding from Jin's original post was to put a portfolio together for agencies not museums? I may be wrong on this?

Some photographer's use Press Books leather bound books with polyester print sleeves
these sleeves can make the print appear a bit darker so i usually print a bit lighter to compensate for this. The number of prints i've had back that have had fingernail dings and fingerprint smudges from unprotected prints gives the prints a very short lifespan.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

I took mine to a local copyshop for laminating and then carried them loose in a case all by themselves so that people could leaf through them easily, and lay them out on a table.

Dead cheap too.

 

[Avotius]

if you are hellbent on the plastic sleve protection then I highly suggest that you print the photos out on glossy paper then use a special lamination that makes it look like matte paper but also protects the photos. I do this for all my gallery exhibitions.

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

The problem with some lamination companies is that the results end up looking like pretty placemats!
I think Don's museum approach is by far the best approach to presentation but in the hands of London's junior ad agencies' art directors, they'd last 5 minutes before they got thumbmarked......sad but true.

it takes a lot of time and money to put together a good presentation not to mention the manhours trawling the work around - protection is very important unless you want to spend hours making new prints or paying someone else to do it. So in the end its a trade off between what looks good and how long it will stay looking like that.

I do think that there is a very differnt approach to how you'd present to galleries/musums and how you'd present work to commercial agencies be it advertising/agency representation etc.

 

[Toby]

I'd echo most of what Simon's been saying, the polyester sleeves you get at Silverprint in London are very different from your everyday items. If you can make the trip to silverprint and see what they have on offer that's a good first step. They sell archival mounting materials as well as there own portfolio boxes etc. In my experience they have the best selction in London and are always very helpful.

 

[jrong]

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions so far. I've had time to ponder over them. I'm sorry I didn't state my original purpose for the portfolio earlier. I've just started to hand-print my negatives in my own "temporary darkroom" and would like a convenient place to store the prints, for easy viewing - for myself, my friends and family, etc. (hence the number of photos) I am not presenting this to any agency or museum, although I would also like the portfolio to be good enough to show say, a photography critique circle to give them an impression of my work.

I've decided that I need 2 portfolios, one for 35mm and another for 6x6 MF.

I've been having trouble getting the borders/margins of the prints to match up precisely, which is why I thought of mounting each print, so the discrepancies are no longer visible; however I suspect this is overkill?? Is there a place I can get reasonably-priced mounting board/card which is acid-free? Silverprint only sell very large mounting boards which are difficult to cut down to size. And I don't think Jessops' boards are archival, although they are a handy size.

Jin