I recently applied for a job at a newspaper. I really haven't cared about putting together a portfolio in years. Each year I collect my favorite from the year and thats about it. And they are my favorites, not necessarily my best. And a favorite can mean the experience I had making the picture as much as the outcome of the photograph itself. I didn't do a very good (or professional) job at applying. I sent them my daily blog with a note saying, this is what I do each day which is a better indication of the type of photographer I am than if i show you a collection of my 20-30 best photos over the last 30 years. What seemed like a smart approach at the time, likely 1 or 2 in the morning wasn't very professional if I was hoping to land the job. It was a bit full of myself actually. over my 17 years at The Meadville Tribune and 30 years of making pictures I've taken a few pretty cool photos, I could sit down and go over them to find 30 pictures to showcase as my portfolio, but I'd always question if they are the right 30. To me the greatness of an image is situational and I can usually go on and on about an image and its importance to a time and place, but to say it was one of the 30 most significant is another thing all together. I am thinking about putting some images together in a book someday and if I do I'll end up having these same thoughts. Today as I was looking for an image I came across two of my yearly favorites folder's and pulled them out. Here below is a slideshow of images I made in 2010. All Meadville Tribune assignments or stories I worked on for the paper. Everything from a food shoot for a special section on local business, a lot of sports, a kid playing with a ball by himself in a gym, a teen struggling with a rare disorder that doesn't allow him to sweat, devastation at accident scenes and fires a feisty man one day away from turning 100 and when he said he was going to give up sex. In a year I get to experience and document life! So many stories, a young woman looking up to heaven for a father she lost earlier in the year after one of his cows was named Supreme Champion. A food drive where volunteers worked hard, politics. A homeless tent city, an art show, first day of school, a doggy marriage and a wrestler at the county fair. From this group I would probably edit down to 10 for my 'Best" and of those, possibly none would make it into a final portfolio.
|
AuthorI have been a photographer/artist for the last 30 plus years (since 1966 if you believe as I do that I was born to do this!) CategoriesArchives
May 2015
|