I attended my first portfolio review at Powerhouse Books in Dumbo this past Sunday, and overall I have to say it was a very positive experience. I almost missed the the event altogether, because despite my dedication and days of preparation, I somehow missed the news about the 5 borough bike race that went right through Dumbo. Needless to say my 12 minute car service ride, became an hour and 10 minute ride. But I made it and I am glad I did. I have Amy Stein to thank, she encouraged me to go at the Humble Arts panel.
Portfolio Reviews are funny things, especially un-curated ones, like Fotofest and the Powerhouse Review. There is such a large mix of work, I imagine the reviewers are at a loss sometimes as to what to say to people. But for me, it was just what I needed. To be 100% honest I think I have been avoiding showing my work to people after my very first experience 2 & 1/2 years ago at a gallery. But the assignment method at the powerhouse review was sort of like a blind date. So the stakes were not as high, it was more likely you were not going to be right for each other than to fall in love under those circumstances. So when I got criticism from one reviewer, I took what was useful from it and let the rest slide off my back. A very new experience for me. The rest of my encounters were very positive and I got some really concrete and useful feedback. The reviewers were all very generous with their insight and very engaged in the process. I left feeling really great about my work. Now, this is not to say I left with a scheduled show and a signed book deal, I think that is an unrealistic expectation for a review. I am starting to see that there is no overnight success in this, but rather a culmination of lots of little steps some in the right direction and some not. But getting the confirmation I needed on the quality and message of my project is an incredible gift. I am well aware that my imagery is a challenging sell for a gallery. But so is a lot of other great art. There is a lot of not too interesting fluff on the walls of galleries because they have New York rents too. If they do not show work that sells, they can never take a chance on anyone.
The bottom line is that most fine-art photography gets made for other photographers, museums curators and a select group of collectors. The average person, and I mean smart media savvy New Yorker, does not like most of what is lauded in the art world. I recently had this experience after inviting some friends to come to an opening. They are very intelligent people, but they were totally left cold by the photos. The imagery just did not translate. As a photo person, I loved them. It is not Robert Frank, Walker Evans or Diane Arbus that people buy posters and reprints of, but Weston nudes & flowers or Ansel Adams. The bottom line is that shows that make money are Sante D’Orazio’s Pamela Anderson nudes and Martin Scholler’s George Clooney Head portraits. But if buying those images makes people happy or allows the gallery to show other artists, so what? There reality of life is that a gallery is not a museum, it is a business. And artists will always have to balance their visions with that reality. The best piece of advice I got at the review, was to just keep doing what I am doing, and be patient. And that it is better to have the galleries come to you when all the pieces fall into place.
Ground Glass 
I have been contemplating attending one of the many reviews out there in the next year- but to be honest, the price of attending and in some cases, traveling to attend, is a bit unsettling.
Do you think you would attend another one anytime soon or would you wait until you had another full project to show? I’m wondering if reviews are used more as a networking opportunity or a chance to sort of ‘shop’ around specific things?
it’s so great that you’re sharing these experiences and best how you are taking things in such stride, because it’s just really about living while you’re making work and not living for the big payoff.
“The bottom line is that most fine-art photography gets made for other photographers, museums curators and a select group of collectors.”
Where do photographers come from? For that matter, what about collectors? Are they born that way? Cara, don’t forget that every photo lover started from a point of ignorance.
I’ve logged in many hours with collectors and curators as a clerk and art handler and I can tell you from experience that most of them do not make for a sophisticated photo audience. Which is why I spent more time hanging work that shows more affinity for linguistic concepts than visual intelligence.
“The bottom line is that shows that make money are Sante D’Orazio’s Pamela Anderson nudes and Martin Scholler’s George Clooney Head portraits. But if buying those images makes people happy or allows the gallery to show other artists, so what?”
So what? So this makes you a second class citizen which means that you are always a secondary consideration. In times of duress you will be the first sacrifice. That’s like a black man saying he doesn’t mind being counted as 3/5 of a person a long as long as interests rates are low.
Look at the comic book, another marginal form. For most of their existence comics have been stuck in one particular market paradigm that only privileged one type of comic: mainstream power fantasies. For a long time other genres of comics tried real hard to function in that market. With little success. In the last decade or so Comics as realized that just because they were one form didn’t mean they only needed one market. Fantagraphics, Oni, and Marvel are working different strategies, fanbases, markets and distribution models. There still exists a fluidity of fans and creators but they’ve realized that fundamentally they are doing different things. It’s far from perfect (too much of the old infrastructure is still in place, and the new structures will take time to fully mature) but it’s certainly more clear headed than what we are doing.
Having just come through my first portfolio reviews — 6 in one week — one with Leslie Brown of the PRC in Boston, the other 5 at the Griffin Museum — and feeling a bit overwhelmed even by the most helpful suggestions — most of which amounted to, keep going — I appreciated reading your reminder about little steps in the right direction. The best advice I got came outside of the reviews — from Craig Stevens (head of photo at SCAD) who said that when one of his former students, a photojournalist, said an editor described her work as “too esoteric,” Craig told her to find an esoteric editor — she did, and had a nice run with that paper. I find that story — along with the encouragement of photo friends and mentors to be the most helpful of all.
I also recently attended my first portfolio review. I went to Hamburg for the Photo Triennial and I have to say I was pretty nervous about it all – I had no idea what to expect and wasn’t even that convinced my work was up to it. But I came away feeling very happy about my work and inspired to keep on photographing, which is more than I got from most of my university crits!
I think the main trick is knowing the right reviewers for your work – being aware of who will respond in the right way to the subject matter and who is likely to be interested and well equipped to give good advice.
The portfolio reviews in the UK and US seem very expensive in comparison to what’s going on in Europe. I’m currently based in the UK but it’s cheaper for me to go to places like Hamburg for reviews than it is to make the 1 hour trip to Birmingham for Rhubarb Rhubarb. I know it costs a fair amount to organise and run but even so it does seem to be unreasonably expensive. Ho Hum.