Creating a photography portfolio may feel like an intimidating or daunting project, but the end result is deeply rewarding. Transforming individual photos into something more — like a portfolio or long-term photography project — is a deeply personal process.
Whether you’re new to photography or preparing for a formal review, here’s our framework for thinking about photography portfolios.
Showcasing Your Style
Your portfolio should distill the efforts of your creative process. Personal nuance can be shown through things like aesthetics, subject matter, and recurring narrative themes. You can start a photography portfolio by focusing on a broad genre like lifestyle, sports, street or travel photography, or you can develop portfolios as personal (or commercial) projects. Think about both Why? and How? you photograph, and use those answers to help form the conceptual foundation of your portfolio.
Inspiration and Research
Once you establish your overarching style or niche, it’s a good idea to look around for some inspiration and to see how other photographers are presenting their work. Try finding other photographers or artists with a similar aesthetic or area of specialization. Examples of photography portfolios can be found by visiting photographers’ personal websites, photography blogs, libraries, museums, art bookstores, or by diving into Discover on VSCO.
Always think critically and take note of the photography portfolio examples that catch your eye:
- How did you find the portfolio or body of work?
- What drew you in and what kept you looking?
- How were the photos arranged or sequenced?
With inspiration and research in hand, you can begin to define your goals and start thinking about your audience.
Defining Your Goals and Audience
Your work should always be unapologetically yours, but you can use different techniques to make your work catch the eye of different audiences. For example, if you’re building a photography portfolio on your VSCO Profile, you may choose to show a larger volume of images over time when compared to editing a print portfolio for an in-person meeting at a fashion publication.
In order to make your work accessible to an audience, you need to understand who they are. Your photography portfolio should try to meet them where they are, literally and conceptually. Photography is everywhere, so consider specifically where and how your audience may view the portfolio, and what you can do to engage with them on a more personal level. This could be a book, website, gallery show, zine, poster, or even a physical pop-up.
Over time, you can develop different kinds of portfolios and projects to build an active audience of your own making. This network could be interested in hiring you, collecting your work, or simply following you — and all require their own thought and attention.
Curating Your Work
With a good idea of who your audience is and how your work will be introduced to them, you can begin selecting images. Always cast a wide net at the start of the process — it’s usually better to have too many photos than too few when trying to develop a photography portfolio. You can use your VSCO Studio, small physical prints, a digital gallery, or any other mock-up method to gather and review photos.
It’s important to take a step back once you’ve gathered all your potential images. Digest the entirety of what you’ve made:
- What shows up when looking at the images as a group, versus individually?
- What themes, compositional queues, arrangements or narratives can you pursue?
- How can your portfolio be modified for your audience without losing integrity?
For more tips on how to curate your work, check out the conversation between VSCO’s Zach Hodges and Lucciana Caselli about creating a photography portfolio:
Sequencing Your Portfolio
Though portfolios are often in a fixed sequence, you can use images to develop all sorts of narratives or thematic arcs between beginnings and ends. Learning how your images “talk” to each other (whether side-by-side or separated) will enable you to bring the best out in your work.
You can start by building upon a small sequence — can you make a two image diptych? A triptych? Much like music and poetry, arranging images requires you to consider rhythm, tone, and timing. Create a natural ebb and flow with the images — some motifs can be made obvious, while others can be subtly embedded within the photography portfolio.
Getting Second Opinions
Asking for help can make the difference between an unfinished attempt and a polished, final portfolio — some professional photographers even rely completely on others to edit their portfolios and projects for them. Think about 2-3 people that you can lean on for input as you develop your portfolio. These people can be mentors, experts in a related field, or even subjects themselves.
Prepare questions and keep an open mind when receiving feedback. Try to thoughtfully condense any critiques and how you might want to address them in the photography portfolio as work toward your finished product.
Presentation
With images selected and a rough sequence or arrangement in mind, you can begin to finesse the final presentation of your photography portfolio.
This can be as simple as tapping the ‘publish’ button on your phone or ordering a readymade book, or as complicated as making, framing, transporting, and hanging large scale prints. Realistically think about what presentation will serve both your work and your audience. You may want to consider working with a dedicated designer, regardless, always make mock-ups and drafts before going all in on an expensive tool or printing job.
You can also always start small and evolve the portfolio over time — in fact, if you’re just looking to build a personal portfolio for your website or personal brand, this is what we recommend.
Creative Evolution
Your creative process isn’t stagnant, and neither should your photography portfolio. Think about how you can iterate based on prior portfolios and experiences. This will save you the time of starting from scratch and help ensure you’re progressing in your practice.
If it’s easy to update your portfolio, like a VSCO Profile or personal website, then don’t hesitate to evolve the portfolio with well thought out changes over time. You may surprise yourself with this approach, as changes add up you’ll end up with completely new presentations over time. Remember, this is only a guide — introducing your own changes and processes can help make it your own.
Photography Portfolio Checklist
- Develop your creative voice
- Do your research
- Set goals and get to know your audience
- Gather and review photos
- Sequence and design
- Get second opinions
- Final presentation
- Reflect and iterate
Share Your Portfolio on VSCO
With VSCO Membership, you can elevate and evolve your portfolio on your profile with even more customization. Choose between different profile layouts, add additional social links, and easily make changes to your public information. Beyond showcasing your best work, VSCO Membership offers community, tools, and exposure that can help you expand both creatively and professionally, regardless of your skill level.
You can even put your portfolio to work with VSCO Hub, where we connect VSCO Pro Members with businesses and brands looking to work with exceptional photographers.
