The Portfolio Project is Underway!

Welcome to everyone who has signed up for this year’s Portfolio Project.  And for those of you who are thinking about participating, no worries, there is time to join us.  To refresh your memory, we have added a link to the presentation we did to introduce Portfolio a few weeks ago, or you can pick up a flyer and handout during the regular meeting.

You might be asking yourself, why take the time from my busy schedule to do a portfolio?  I say, think of this as a way to explore a subject that interests you, or to stretch yourself by approaching something new.   Are you preparing for a solo show, or want the material to sell that idea to a gallery or other venue?  Use the project as a way to develop your skills and have a product to show.  Besides, though this is not about competition with other people, it is a good way to create show worthy images for the future.

And as an added value you will have two opportunities for feedback on your work.  This is such a good learning experience that I am sure you will enjoy the project and benefit from the exercise.

Looking forward to seeing your creativity at work!

Ginger and Ceasar

The following is from a presentation on the portfolio project. You can also download this presentation by clicking on this link: Portfolio Handout 9-30-14

 

DEVELOPING YOUR ART AND VISION THROUGH CREATING A PORTFOLIO

presenters: Ginger Werz-Petricka & Ceasar Sharper
Portfolio Project Co-Chairs

WHY JOIN THE PORTFOLIO PROJECT?

  • Challenge yourself – really work a subject or concept
  • Create a unified body of work 
  • Learn to practice the art of self-criticism
  • Have two chances for a review of your images 
  • Present more of your work to the club then you can through competition
  • MOST IMPORTANTLY: THIS IS NOT A COMPETITION – IT IS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE!

PORTFOLIO STEPS

  • Decide on a theme 
  • Craft an Artist Statement 
  • Start collecting your images 
  • Post your Artist Statement and images to the Gallery 
  • Create a Final Presentation

GETTING STARTED

Sign up by seeing Caesar or Ginger at a meeting. One or both of us will be here  from 7:00 so you can sign up before program starts or during the break.

GET A GALLERY PASSWORD:

  • Get registered as a gallery user by going to http://nvps.org/gallery/main.php and clicking on register (upper right hand corner). Follow the directions on the screen to get yourself a login and password. If you are already a registered user of the gallery then you start at step two.
  • Send your gallery user name (not your password) to portfolio-gallery@nvps.org and request Portfolio Project participation.
  • You will receive an email confirming creation of your album at which point you will be able to upload pictures as well as comment on other member’s pictures.
  • THE GALLERY CAN ONLY BE ACCESSED BY PARTICIPANTS UNTIL THE END OF THE PROJECT

gallery1

TO UP-LOAD IMAGES:

  1. If you are logged in to the gallery, please log out. This is required as your privileges to the gallery have changed.
  2. In preparing your image files, please use the “firstlast name_image number from 01 to total” file naming convention for your file names. Example: mikewhalen_01.jpg,mikewhalen_02.jpg, etc. Please do this for the file names, you are free to caption the images as you like.
  3. Navigate to the link to your portfolio gallery (link below) or to NVPS website photo gallery at http://nvps.org/gallery/
  4. Click “Login” in the upper right hand corner of the page.  You must login to see the portfolio gallery.
  5. Click on the album “Portfolio Project”
  6. Click on the album “The 2014 – 2015 Portfolio Project”
  7. Click on the album with your name (on the word “no thumbnail”)
  8. Click “add items” in the menu on the left
  9. Press the Browse button to add individual files (like the digital competition upload).
  10. Add a caption if you like (optional).
  11. Press the “Add Items” button at the bottom left of the page to upload up to two files.
  12. Select “Add more files” from below the file names if you would like add additional files.
  13. Repeat steps 7 to 10 until all files are uploaded.

 

CRAFTING AN ARTIST STATEMENT

  • Brevity is the soul of wit 
  • Pique the viewer’s interest 
  • They may read only the title…what does it say? 
  • Avoid the obscure…if you have to look up the word they will too
  • Have a beginning, a middle and an end 
  • This is not your biography
  • Check out the Article on Artist Statements from ‘Lenswork’ in the January 2013 Portfolio posting

PORTFOLIO GUIDELINES (there are no rules)

Image selection is the most critical part of portfolio development. Begin with your best of the best images from within a theme & from these…

  • First, choose your lead image. Start strong – 1st impressions
  • Next, choose your final image. End strong – One to remember you by 
  • Then, add your Must-Have images (those you can’t live without)
  • Show versatility (different content, lenses, perspective, visual design)
  • “Hide” weakest images in middle & don’t group weakest all together (better yet, don’t include any weak images in the portfolio)
  • Afterwards (let it rest a while) remove redundant images
  • Remove anything the least bit marginal
  • Get feedback

based on the book ‘Photo Portfolio Success’ by John Kaplan

 

WHAT DOES A PORTFOLIO HAVE?

  • A portfolio should have a thematic focus (except maybe with photojournalism) 
  • The artist’s statement describes the theme / technique (and is not the artist’s bio)
  • Image selection is much easier once you’ve written an artist’s statement
  • A good portfolio size is 10-20 images 
  • Consistency among portfolio images is important

 

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CONSISTENCY?

  • Consistent with the chosen theme
  • Consistent in quality – only the best of your best of the best
  • Consistent in style – don’t mix B&W with color, for example
  • Consistent in scale – balance numbers if scale varies from wide to macro
  • And Remember – the portfolio is only as strong as its weakest image

 

PRESENTATION OF THE FINAL PORTFOLIO

  • Digital (laptop)
  • Book (bound)
  • Folio   (loose leaf prints)
  • Poster
  • Matted Prints

 

Review the excellent posting by Scott Musson presentation on Photo Books & Calendars presented on 3/30/2010 at: https://nvps.org/home/?p=2577.

 

PORTFOLIO SCHEDULE

  • January 27, 2015 Preliminary Review with input from a panel of  experienced club members
  • April 15, 2015           Last day to sign-up for the project 
  • April 30, 2015           Last day to up-load images to your gallery
  • May 12, 2015           Final Review

 

It is the participant’s choice about submitting for either review.

There are reviews and there is competition, this is a review, not a competition! 

And portfolios will not be reviewed against each other.

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