My thoughts on attending a Portfolio Review

[G Benaim]

Hi everyone,

I just recently got back from my first portfolio review at the Rencontres d'Arles festival, and wrote up my thoughts and suggestions for other photographers interested in such things. Here's the link (http://gabrielbenaim.blogspot.com/). Let me know what you think, and send me any questions you may have about the whole process. It was definitely a worthwhile experience for me, one I'd recommend if you're interested in promoting your work.

GB

[Richard M. Coda]

I'd be interested in hearing what the reviewers had to say. Your work, which is very nice, doesn't fall into the "flavor of the month, MFA, look at me" stuff which everyone seems to go ga-ga over today. You take a more classical approach to photography, which IMHO I will never tire of.

[BarryS]

Thanks for posting your thoughts--I found them interesting and useful. I'd also be interested in what the reviewers said about your work and how you think it will influence you moving forward.

[G Benaim]

Thanks for your compliments, Richard. That was actually one of the questions I wanted answered when going to the review. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. First off, there was pretty unanimous agreement over the high quality of the prints, which they don't get to see much. Most reviewers thought the work was very strong, and several gallerists were actually interested in showing it to collectors and/or showing it in their galleries. There was also pretty unanimous agreement about the print size being just fine as is, one of my other concerns, as everything is printed large nowadays, and mine are 8x10 contact prints. Almost everyone I saw thought the prints worked well as 8x10s. One gallerist thought it would be nice to have some enlargements at a show, just to break up the rhythm a little. All in all, though, they really liked the work and the format. There were specific comments about where they thought I should take the current project, Tel Aviv, some suggesting very specific lines, some eliminating close ups for the sake of a unified pov, that kind of thing.
Anyway, as I wrote on my blog, you'll get a very good sense of where your work fits in the broad scheme of things very quickly, and whether there's any interest in what you do out there.

[G Benaim]

Hi Barry,

I just answered a bit about what they said, so I'll try to answer your other question. I'm not sure how much I'll incorporate what reviewers said into how I work. For instance, a few photographers' names kept popping up all the time, like Lewis Baltz and Gabriele Basilico, and the New Topographics show. Now obviously I went and looked at their work, and really liked some of it, and see its relation to my own. It will affect my own work in the same way that seeing other good work does, however that happens. It definitely made me want to go out and shoot, which is always a good sign!
One reviewer picked out seven or eight prints out of the 20 I showed from my Tel Aviv portfolio, and said those were the ones that best express my stated goals. His choice was very useful to me, because in my edit I had tried to show an encompassing view of my project, whereas he focused on a very specific way of seeing. Now this person knows what he's talking about, so I will take very seriously his suggestion that I focus in that particular vein, but I'm not sure yet how it will play out in future work. We'll see. Keep the questions coming, though, it's still an ongoing process for me.

GB

[William McEwen]

Gabriel, I think you should be GIVING portfolio reviews!

[Richard M. Coda]

Gabriel, was this event FREE? I looked on their website and saw fees for exhibits, but couldn't find (understand) their fee structure for reviews. Most reviews cost quite a bit, and if you throw in transportation, hotel, meals, etc...

[QT Luong]

For instance, a few photographers' names kept popping up all the time, like Lewis Baltz and Gabriele Basilico, and the New Topographics show. Now obviously I went and looked at their work, and really liked some of it, and see its relation to my own. It will affect my own work in the same way that seeing other good work does, however that happens.


It's interesting that you developed on your own this style, prior to seeing those photographers work, because I believe that for (too ?) many MFA students, this has been the other way around.

[Richard M. Coda]

It's interesting that you developed on your own this style, prior to seeing those photographers work, because I believe that for (too ?) many MFA students, this has been the other way around.

I agree!

[G Benaim]

Hi Richard,

This was not a free event, but it was relatively reasonable, a little over $300 for 10 reviews, and you get to pick your reviewers.

William, do you say that because you like my work or because of what I wrote about the review process? Either way, I'd definitely be interested in looking at other photographers' work and giving them critiques and/or advice.

QT: I have been relatively sheltered from the Academic art world, and can say my main influences on this particular project were Michael Smith and Brett Weston's city work, as well as the couple of weeks I spent assisting Michael and Paula in Chicago last year. Best hands on education you can get.

[William McEwen]

William, do you say that because you like my work or because of what I wrote about the review process? Either way, I'd definitely be interested in looking at other photographers' work and giving them critiques and/or advice.

QT: I have been relatively sheltered from the Academic art world, and can say my main influences on this particular project were Michael Smith and Brett Weston's city work, as well as the couple of weeks I spent assisting Michael and Paula in Chicago last year. Best hands on education you can get.

...because I like your work. It is very strong! And and it definitely shows the M+P influence.

[G Benaim]

William, thanks for the kind words. I was looking through your site, and noticed the Robert Adams book. It's interesting that he writes about Duchamp's influence on contemporary art, I'm very curious what he has to say. In my own artist's statement, I use Duchamp's famous claims against retinal art and for found object as starting off points in defining my approach to photography.
On a completely different topic, I'll probably be at Houston's fotofest next spring, so if you're planning on going (being relatively close), we should get together. We 8x10 shooters are few and far between, plus I know you'd appreciate seeing these prints in person.

[Jim collum]

Gabriel, excellent work. I've been to a few Reviews myself, and have gotten very constructive feedback (as well as a few shows) from the events.

Were there other photographers at the review, giving reviews? The ones i've been to have only had gallery owners, curators, publishers, and such giving the reviews

jim


Gabriel, I think you should be GIVING portfolio reviews!

[QT Luong]

and it definitely shows the M+P influence.

I see it mostly in the "Rural geometries" series.

[G Benaim]

Jim,

I think there was one photographer there giving reviews, the rest were all industry pros.

[Michael A. Smith]

Gabriel Benaim's "Rural Geometries" were made before he took our Vision and Technique Workshop last year.

Our workshops, while undoubtedly having a visual influence on some photographers, are ultimately about what it means, visually, not ideationally, to make photographs. As a result, after our workshops, photographers are better able to truly develop their individual vision.

Michael A. Smith

[paulr]

Nice article, GB.

I've only attended one portfolio review (Fotofest, years ago), and my experiences were similar. Including being told about similarities to the work of other artists I hadn't discovered yet. This was interesting, and also a bit embarassing ... I should have known about these people! I realized that the work mine resembled came from artists with the same influences as me. So it made sense that our work had things in common. It opened up a whole world of work to discover. A welcome to the 1970s, even though it was 1995...

One of the most valuable parts of the experience was seeing just how subjective the review process is. Among people who are equally brilliant critics, some will get your work on a deep level, and some may not get it at all. Some may love it, and some may hate it. I found myself learning as much about the reviewers as I learned about my work. I won't go as far as those who say "all reviewers ever do is psychoanalyze themselves" ... but they certainly do a bit of that.

The result is that after a dozen or so reviews, I had permanently lost all fears of showing my work. Now, even if I were to show a portfolio to the ghost of Stieglitz himself, I'd go in knowing that maybe he'll like the work and maybe he'll throw me out, and that either result's ok ... what really matters is if I can learn something--anything--from the process.

[G Benaim]

Paul,

I agree that one of the benefits is to be exposed to such different reactions to one's work, and how that immunizes you ina way from fears of criticism. I also agree I should have known about these people, though in a sense I'm glad I got there on my own. Now I can look at their work as a colleague, not an apprentice. In some cases, there's work I wouldn't want to do now, in others there's some really inspiring work. I'm just now working through what it means to have predecessors I didn't know about, and how and to what extent let it affect my own work. Very good experience all told.