Online portfolio reviews present new and different benefits and learning curves in comparison to face to face, in-person reviews. With many organizations expanding their review programs to the online environment, make sure your digital portfolio and online etiquette are primed to get the most out of these reviews.

Join Mary Virginia Swanson (Advisor, M.V. Swanson & Associates, Tucson, AZ), Steven Evans (Executive Director, FotoFest, Houston, TX), Sarah Ansell (Manager, FotoFest Meeting Place Portfolio Review), a panel of seasoned portfolio reviewers, and three photographers who have participated in online reviews as they discuss best practices for organizing your work for online reviews, setting the stage for your appointments, and following up with your reviewers after your appointments.

Photographers Alanna Airitam, Lou Peralta, and Mary West Quin outline the unique ways they used the virtual platform to their advantage. Panelists Sarah Leen, Douglas Marshall, and Lisa Volpe will give in-depth insight into what made some reviews more successful than others, and why certain photographers and portfolios stuck in their minds long after the reviews were over.

Sarah Leen, Founder and Editor, The Visual Thinking Collective, Washington, D.C.

Douglas Marshall, Owner and Director, Marshall Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

Lisa Volpe, Associate Curator, Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

This seminar will provide participants with overview of the portfolio review experience when conducted in the virtual environment, and how to maximize the benefits of online meetings with industry professionals.

Participants will gain an understanding of how to organize their visual materials for presentation, including preparing tailored PDF’s and/or introducing work via their websites, showing physical prints and other related objects in this “studio visit” experience, and finally, how to appropriately conclude these virtual meetings when we aren’t able to offer promotional pieces or share contact details in print form.

Industry professionals will share their experiences serving as online reviewers, offering tips and insights about organizing digital portfolios, making a strong first impression on video calls, increasing the likelihood of reviewers keeping track of their work (inviting to join mailing list, creating downloadable PDF’s), and using the advantages of digital reviews to have a private meeting that is beneficial in ways that are not achievable with in-person reviews.

Additionally, photographers who have participated in digital reviews in 2020 will speak specifically to meetings that were successful and memorable, and why, offering advice about what they would consider doing differently now that they have experienced portfolio reviews in this non-traditional space.

Preparing for Online Portfolio Reviews will be recorded for archiving purposes, and will not be available for viewing on demand. Three rebroadcasts will be held for ticket holders who are unable to make the scheduled live seminar, and for ticket holders who wish to rewatch the seminar. Rebroadcast dates and times will be announced soon.