By 10 a.m. I'll be in Albuquerque; at 12:30 I'll be sitting across the table from my first portfolio reviewer in Santa Fe. Over the course of the next four hours, I'll see three gallery owners, two magazine editors and one agent. It will no doubt be a grueling afternoon. Each session is twenty minutes long - not much time to try to share the breadth and depth of years of work. Tonight is the public portfolio sharing at the museum. Tomorrow morning I see two more gallery owners and one more agent; the afternoon is reserved for seminars, the evening for gallery tours.
These reviews are not for the weak at heart or the insecure. I've watched people leave them in tears. They're for serious fine art photographers who are determined to make it to the next level in their career, whether it be finding their first or an additional gallery to represent them, getting picked up for an assignment for a magazine, securing a book deal or getting a show at/selling work to a museum. It can also a good way to simply get advice and encouragement if you happen to be looking for that (aren't we all?).
Being a photographer means not only making pictures. I have spent hours and hours putting together the materials I will leave with each reviewer (articles, announcements, reviews, resume, etc) and more hours printing my portfolios, packaging them just so, rehearsing my "lines" and building up the confidence it will take to subject myself to the personal opinions of those who have influence and power in the photo world.
I never took Marketing 101 in college, but perhaps I should have!
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