Last summer I made a commitment to myself to step up my photo game: to find a small team of people who could help me critically assess where my portfolio was and where it could be, then to create a set of materials that would communicate to the creative world who I am as a photographer and what I can do. That process never ends. Interests, co-creators, and creative styles evolve and grow, and so do portfolios. But as of this month, with the arrival of my new portfolio and the kick off of my postcard campaign, I feel a small sense of completion after ten months of serious work.

Here are a few shots of the new book. It’s actually two books within one slipcase, organized like my web site, with stories in one book and portraits in the other. It’s hard to do get a full appreciation for the book without handling it – the cover material has a metalic texture and sheen, but a super soft, highly pet-able feel. The color palette is warm, understated and professional, and contrasts in such a cool way with the vivid green spreads that introduce each section.

I’m really excited to get out in the marketplace and show it off. Many thanks to everyone involved in its production – please scroll to the bottom of the entry for credits and links.

Image edit and masterminding: Selina Maitreya
Identity and layout: Andrew Voss of Spunk Design Machine
Book design assistance and construction: Scott Mullenberg
Pages printed at Workprint Studios

The past few days I’ve been feverishly addressing and stamping my first round of self promo postcards. It feels good to type a little bit instead of writing – I’ve been having flashbacks to college blue book final exams (do they still have those?). It’s been at least 15 years since I’ve written this much.

They’ll be going out every six weeks or so, with pinpoint targeted accuracy to magazine and agency folks who care about food in some way, and to a wider group in the Midwest. Thanks to Craig Johnson at Agency F for the design help, and to Franklin Press for the beautiful print job. And, of course, thanks also to Selina Maitreya for the ongoing strategic guidance. I’m lucky to have such a creative and intelligent group helping me – I’ve definitely learned that this kind of thing can’t be done solo.

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted on the status of The Big Project – not because there’s been no progress, of course. I’ve just been a bad blog friend. Sorry about that.

But here I am now to give you some of the scoop! First of all, branding. Maybe you caught my announcement of the new wedding portfolio site, where you can see the wedding version of my new logo in action. If not, let’s put a spotlight on the logo, because I for one have a hard time getting enough of it.

Man, I am so. . . stoked. . . about the job Andrew Voss has done so far on design. (And by the way, I never use the word stoked.) He hit it out of the park, as far as I’m concerned. It’s modern but authentic, sophisticated yet hand-hewn. I love it, and I feel like it speaks to my photographic style perfectly. Big props to Mr. Voss for the logo and the layouts he’s come up with for my print portfolio, postcards, letterhead, business cards. . . the whole works. I can’t wait to unleash the green side on the world in the coming weeks.

The wedding site was accompanied by a new print portfolio book, housed in a spectacular hand made slip cover and cover made by the immensely talented Scott Mullenberg. If you’re in the market for a custom book maker, you couldn’t do better than Scott. His product is absolutely top notch, he’s creative, responsive, and professional. I’ll be using him for my non-wedding portfolios, and for all high end wedding albums I produce.

Once the wedding site and book were wrapped up, I moved on to marketing my wedding business. Compared to last year in particular, the rate of bookings for 2010 has been gangbusters so far, and I think a lot of the credit for that should go to Andrew’s beautiful design and Selina Maytreya’s editing and sequencing of the images used. I’ve had nothing but fun working with these guys, and I feel like I’m projecting a much more true idea of my capabilities to the world, which feels great.

In other wedding news, I will be the preferred photographer for events at Solera Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, which is particularly exciting because I have so much respect for the food they put out. I photographed a wedding there last June and had a great time using their bright colors and wide windows and views of Minneapolis as my backdrop. Hopefully I’ll be there lots more in the months to come.

Most recently, this week Selina and I have been at work editing my non-wedding work. They’re still in a bit of flux, but here are the sequences for the three galleries I’ll be relaunching my site and print portfolio with as they stand today.

Portraits

Foodies

Sun City

Having this new edit is super energizing; working on your own portfolio by yourself, it’s easy to get bogged down in your attachment to certain images and your own individual artistic sensibility. Working with another person you trust – especially someone like Selina, who has a ton of experience in the industry – clarifies the work you do, and how it holds together as a whole. I really like the way these images flow one to the next to lead a viewer through some of the best of what I’ve photographed so far. It’ll be fun to package it all up and throw it to the winds in 2010.

Lately I’ve been laying the groundwork on a couple personal projects. The Alexis Bailly Vineyard series is one, and another is still trying to get rolling. Starting these projects can be kind of a funny process. At the very beginning I have to have a conversation that starts like this: Hi! You don’t know me, but I’m a photographer, and I’d really like to take your picture.

Most people react with questions like, Who the hell are you? Why me? What are you going to do with the pictures? People are conditioned to be suspicious of attention directed at them by people they don’t know. So at the very beginning of a project, when I approach someone for the first time with this completely unexpected idea, there’s this period of only a few minutes where I need to show that I mean no harm, or the project is never going to happen.

As I’ve thought about it, I’ve realized that building trust is the base of almost everything one does as a photographer.

• Working with new commercial clients – and booking weddings – comes down to whether people can rely on you to be creative and professional every time out.
• Gaining access to people and places hinges upon your ability to empathize with people and understand what you’re asking them to do for you, and be sensitive to their situation.
• Establishing a business network is nothing but trust. Even building a base of blog readers is a matter of getting people to trust that you will have relevant things to share on a regular basis.
• Once the camera finally gets picked up – what it all comes down to – trust between a subject and photographer is the start of making any amazing picture.

If I can’t inspire trust in the people around me, that’s a real problem.

A writer friend of mine just posted a thought provoking piece about finding motivation and accountability as a freelance writer, but it really applies to any creative doing personal work. The question is, who’s your boss? Who do you report to? The very pointed follow up question: if you’re freelance (or if you’re employed as a creative but have personal projects on the side) and you don’t have a boss figure, did you know that your chances of success drop significantly?

After a few months of consciously building a team of collaborators and ‘bosses’ (see the Big Project posts), I can attest to the importance of not going it alone. Creative work is first and most importantly an exercise in self-searching. You explore your perspective on the world and create something that communicates that perspective. Without creative collaborators and bosses, it’s so easy to look at finished work and disappear in to the woods of self criticism, or on the flip side, to make work that is meaningful to you, but doesn’t speak to anyone not occupying your own brain. It’s only through sharing with some kind of group of trusted people that creative work gains legitimacy and confidence.

If you’re in the process of building (or rebuilding) your portfolio, or writing something big, or contemplating a career change, find yourself a boss. I can say that in my experience, ironically, by finding someone to act as your judge you’ll feel more powerful and confident almost immediately.