How many prints make up a portfolio?

[Sparrow]

How many prints make up a portfolio?

Mine have got a bit out of hand, and I'm going to edit them a bit ... but what's the best compromise between showing my best stuff and becoming boring to the viewer.

 

[ooze]

How many prints make up a portfolio?

Mine have got a bit out of hand, and I'm going to edit them a bit ... but what's the best compromise between showing my best stuff and becoming boring to the viewer.

IMO, at least a dozen, and not more than two dozen.

 

[Frank Petronio]

I think if you did ten or twelve superlative pictures along one theme you'd be acknowledged the master. In the mid-1990s when I did digital imaging for a living I always intended to do a dozen drop shadow product shots because those were the bread-and-butter money-makers.

But yes, I used to get the busy, harried art directors who would rip through a book distractedly. But my work was subtle, of mundane subjects, and unless you were predisposed to take some time to really look, there wasn't much pop on the surface of it.

Nowadays I have 100 pictures in my Blurb book and most people study them. I also made some inkjet portfolios with 40 selects, those get handled slowly too.

If they flip through quickly I might as well take a piss in their ear and leave. Seriously it is a lost cause so why run up the parking? You might as well have the satisfaction of making a scene ;-)

Does it translate into jobs? Not unless I find the right agency who has the right clients. There aren't that many.

 

[Steve M.]

You'd almost need to know who would be looking at the work, and for what reason. 8 or 10 of your best shots per theme would surely do it.

 

[al1966]

If it is for a University or perhaps other institutions then you should look at their submissions guidelines. It is all too easy to be disqualified if you hand over a portfolio with too many or too few photographs. Also it is worth keeping the portfolio to a theme or subject matter, if your work covers say three different areas of work then have a portfolio of each.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Stewart,

From http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps critique.html (sometimes painful experience in doing critiques on the Leica stand at Arles)

iv keep the numbers down

If you're showing a single theme, probably the absolute maximum number of pictures to show is 18 or 20 and indeed a dozen may be more appropriate. With two themes, you can get away with slightly more pictures overall, maybe ten or a dozen per theme. And with three themes, which is the maximum we would recommend, you really do not want more than about ten pictures per theme, and you could have as few as six or eight.

Cheers,

R.

 

[John Lawrence]

Twelve to twenty - and all the people I've shown my portfolio to have really stopped paying attention after about the eighth picture. May be down to human nature, work pressure or the quality of my images!

John

 

[kbg32]

Fifteen. No more, no less. I used to be the exhibition coordinator for a well known photo gallery here in NYC back in the 80's. You want to wet their appetite. 10-12 is too little. 20 may be too much. If they want to see more, they will ask.

 

[Turtle]

The above may be appropriate a lot of the time, but I would look carefully at the specific application if I were you. just like resumes/CVs/covering letters... while the base might remain similar, they need tweaking for the specific job.

When visiting art directors I used to keep it to about 25. But... I recently sought advice on presenting a very large long term documentary project to a London agency and had originally anticipated keeping it down to under 30 prints. I was advised by several very accomplished photographers to 'present as many as you like as long as they help bind the story together and positively contribute... 50 or more is no problem.' I then put together 40 core images (with and another 20 in reserve) and ensured that it would hold together just fine if we stopped at any point past the first 20 or so. He looked at all 60, asked loads of questions and he was driving it not me. I felt it worked and due to the scale, scope and depth of the project, 20 images would have struggled to give any depth.

When dealing with publishers I have kept it to about 4 or 5 initially, then have the entire body of work available for them if they show further interest. It works and you want to make people hungry for more.

I think you have to treat every case individually.

 

[John Elder]

The last solo show I had in NYC was the result of initially sending the gallery owner 4 exhibition quality prints. He responded that if the rest of my work was as strong as the original 4 he would give me a show. My "Street" portfolio consists of 30 prints, without any redundancy. This particular gallery had a tendency of having group shows prior to my show. I didn't want a group show. So, I bucked the conventional wisdom, wanted to let him know that I had enough work to cover his entire gallery. I met him one on one with 60 prints and was told I had a solo show half way through the presentation. Normally, I would just present my 30 image folio. I have a seperate 30 image portfo;io for medium format abstract work.

 

[Sparrow]

I think if you did ten or twelve superlative pictures along one theme you'd be acknowledged the master. In the mid-1990s when I did digital imaging for a living I always intended to do a dozen drop shadow product shots because those were the bread-and-butter money-makers.

But yes, I used to get the busy, harried art directors who would rip through a book distractedly. But my work was subtle, of mundane subjects, and unless you were predisposed to take some time to really look, there wasn't much pop on the surface of it.

Nowadays I have 100 pictures in my Blurb book and most people study them. I also made some inkjet portfolios with 40 selects, those get handled slowly too.

If they flip through quickly I might as well take a piss in their ear and leave. Seriously it is a lost cause so why run up the parking? You might as well have the satisfaction of making a scene ;-)

Does it translate into jobs? Not unless I find the right agency who has the right clients. There aren't that many.

That's the rub each time I reason it through I end up thinking opposing things

1) .... if they don't get it from 12 prints they never will ... and
2) ... if they can't look through 30 prints they'll never be interested ...

... thankfully I just want hanging space I'm not looking for work, and I'm a yorkshireman so I tend to be blunt

 

[Sparrow]

If it is for a University or perhaps other institutions then you should look at their submissions guidelines. It is all too easy to be disqualified if you hand over a portfolio with too many or too few photographs. Also it is worth keeping the portfolio to a theme or subject matter, if your work covers say three different areas of work then have a portfolio of each.

It would be for gallery submissions, I've been advised to take things easy so I'm going to have time on my hands in the next few years so I was thinking of resuming the career I gave up in the 70's for commercial gain ... I'm financially independent now.

 

[Sparrow]

Dear Stewart,

From http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps critique.html (sometimes painful experience in doing critiques on the Leica stand at Arles)

iv keep the numbers down

If you're showing a single theme, probably the absolute maximum number of pictures to show is 18 or 20 and indeed a dozen may be more appropriate. With two themes, you can get away with slightly more pictures overall, maybe ten or a dozen per theme. And with three themes, which is the maximum we would recommend, you really do not want more than about ten pictures per theme, and you could have as few as six or eight.

Cheers,

R.

Roger

I'm more looking for someone "like-minded" rather than critiques, I've gone past that stage with them, more or less, and I'm looking for someone with a space to hang in.