Product Description

It used to be that art directors, creative professionals, and producers hired talent based on reputation, networking, and personal relationships. Today’s ultracompetitive business climate is vastly different. Art buying is now more project-oriented. Art directors and creative professionals now must review portfolios with their clients before making any hiring decisions. Since most photographers are self-employed, hiring a photo rep is an expense that cuts dramatically into an already-tight bottom line. So now more than ever, showing a “killer” portfolio that communicates a clear vision can mean the difference between winning projects or just sitting on the sidelines.



In Portfolios That Sell, veteran consultant and lecturer Selina Oppenheim reveals how to create an innovative, competitive, and effective portfolio that will get attention from any potential client. Based on her 20-plus years of consulting with scores of photographers, graphic designers, and illustrators, Oppenheim demonstrates how today’s commercial photographer can communicate expertise, experience, and creative vision clearly and intelligently through a well-executed portfolio. Packed with a wealth of no-fail tips and practical advice for effective marketing, self-promotion, and client relationships, Portfolios That Sell is an indispensable guide for the photographer who wants financial as well as artistic success.




• Filled with scores of high-quality images taken for real-life clients

• Presents important information about a timely, practical subject

• A unique look at the business strategies as well as the artistic concerns of preparing a winning portfolio

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #216720 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-01
• Released on: 2003-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

About the Author
Selina Oppenheim was one of the first consultants for visual professionals in the country, consulting with photographers, graphic designers, and illustrators for over 20 years. She is president of Port Authority, a Boston area–based marketing firm committed to creating strategic programs that enable clients to build businesses around their individual, creative, and financial goals. She lives in Boxborough, MA.

Customer Reviews

Single vision, not single minded
As a professional photographer in the throes of a major repositioning effort, Selina's book provides valuable insight into how to carve out a single vision in 15 to 18 images, wrapped, packaged or otherwise presented in a way that supports that vision. The book doesn't pull any punches. It isn't for the on-the-fence photographer. If you want to win, you have to play to win. There is an investment in time, in money and in patience...none of which are particularly pleasant when faced with the uncertainty of a complex and ever-competitive market. My only disagreement with her - and the reason I rated the book 4 out of 5 stars - is because I feel that the biggest obstacle to getting an assignment is not knowing the right people. Salina thinks it's all about the work. I have found that my biggest assignments came from contacts in the industry. All of us who work on a national level are technically proficient, and most of us are bright, talented and driven. Yes, our styles cover the broadest spectrum imaginable, but what really seperates us is our contacts. With the onset of digital, photography as we once knew it is history. And that's the dirty little secret of this business...If it isn't perfect, we'll fix it in photoshop. My suggestion to anyone entering this field is to network like your life depended on it. Believe me, it's where the line in the sand is drawn.

Judging a Book by its Cover
Every serious photographer spends time trying to figure out how to make better photographs. But professional photographers also have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to market photos, because without sales there is no profession. One of the tools professional photographers use is a "book". A book is a portfolio of the photographer's pictures used to get clients to hire him or her.

Now it might seem that a photographer's pictures could stand by themselves and not need any special method of presentation. The author, who is a consultant to photographers in the preparation of their books, disagrees. She believes that everything from the drafting of a positioning statement about the photographer's work (which will guide the selection and display of pictures in the book) to the texture of the slip case for a book is critical for the photographer to get the edge over competing photographers. After you finish this book you may agree with her.

The author gives simple straightforward advice. Indeed it is so simple that most of the text in this volume could probably be contained in a short brochure. What fills most of the book is the pictures taken by the author's clients, which illustrate the points she makes along the way. If you pay attention to Oppenheim you probably do stand a better chance of catching an art buyer's or art director's eye. On the other hand, unless you already feel comfortable with the economics of marketing, you may gulp when she tells you to spend $125 for what is essentially a loose-leaf binder.

Most of the message contained in this volume, and the photographs included, seem to be directed at assignment photographers, that is, those who must sell a buyer on purchasing his or her skills, rather than selling existing photographs. Yet other photographers from stock to fine arts also probably need a book. While those photographers seem largely ignored by the author, they can benefit from the advice contained here.

I must confess that I'm a little resistant to an assumption underlying the approach of this book, i.e., that photography buyers and directors are willing to form an opinion, at least initially, from form rather than substance. But then again, photographers deal in form, not substance (I don't mean that negatively), so I suppose a nice looking book is important. I wish there was a little more meat in this book, but I suppose even a few words that can show the error of marketing common sense, and the importance of following a path that works, are worth the time and cost of this volume.

This book is like a glass of water in the desert
Most commercial photographers know about Selina Oppenheim, but only a lucky few make the investment to hire her for her expertise in portfolio development and refining your vision as a photographer. Even though hiring Selina as a consultant was one of the best decisions I have made as a photographer, I still wanted to read her book to make sure I hadn't missed anything she has to say about marketing myself as a photographer. I can say from personal experience that this book distills the essence of her one-on-one consulting. This book is really, really worth learning from.