Resume & Portfolio Questions:

[D-USA]

Howdy everyone, a few quick questions from a relative newbie here:

I am working on putting together a portfolio for two local galleries. They are asking for a sample of my work, an artist statement, a cover letter as well as a resume.

I have written many cover letters and resume's for work, but never for my photography. I have no formal training and have never had a showing or done any commercial work. What would you guys include in a cover letter and how would you write a relatively blank resume?

Also I was bought a portfolio folder that holds 12 11x14 pictures (both are asking for a sample between 10-15 pictures). My other question is this: What would be the best way to organize my submission packet? My current thoughts would be to submit one packet that contains the portfolio with the pictures, and a separate folder containing all my personal information.

My other thought was to get a portfolio folder in letter format that holds 24 pages. I would use the first pages for a title, cover letter, resume & artist statement. Then maybe a list of pictures (name & location and such), then the actual pictures. My only concern with that is that my samples would be smaller, and I don't know if it would look bad to have blank pages in the folder towards the end (I think I would only end up using 15-17 pages of the 24).

What is the best way to label each picture in the folder (name, location, artist, medium, etc)? Would it be OK to put all this information on the back of each individual photo sleve (picture in front, information on back), or should I attempt to include this information on the front of each picture?

Thanks for any responses!

[quark]

Welcome to dgrin!

I am not sure I can help with your organization question, I think in general if your portfolio is well organized and looks professional it should be fine. Usually my gallery submissions are electronic so I am not sure the best way to organize.

However, most galleries will be more interested if you submit a very strong artist statement. Many artist like to prepare a body of work for a gallery that has a theme. For example, if you have mostly landscapes it will be more powerful if you artist statement goes beyond the obvious. You might talk about how each of your landscapes is composed to help the viewer feel an emotion like "tranquillity".

This may not be true if it is a commercial gallery, but in general the gallery folks like to feel like they are displaying true "art".

Good luck!