Magnum Portfolio Review

So I’ve never had a portfolio review, and when I was told that Magnum Photos was going to be offering their first ever review as part of their 60th Anniversary; I immediately faxed in my application and fee and didn’t look back. Well I looked back, I looked a bit frantically back actually, with a few freak outs over what to show, a flip out that all my prints were gray blobs, and then a small meltdown that everything I had chosen was clearly pointless, but really, then it was all forward looking. I think that’s part of the review, the process that you go through torturing yourself as you try and select up to 30 images which you think best represent you. I chose 22.
I might not have approached the right way, but I liked my approach. Egged on rightfully by Jen Bekman to make it about getting good feedback and not about a popularity contest I deliberately chose work that was new, that I wasn’t quite sure of, that I wanted to know how I could make it better. That choice made me have a goal. With 20 minutes for each review, and only 3 reviewers I expected concise and very sharp feedback. I actually expected to be told that I had a long road of work ahead of me. I do have a long road ahead of me, but that’s because today what I learned is there is no finish line.

I met with three reviewers, Mark Power , David Allen Harvey, and Chris Anderson - wow, let’s start there, wow not your ordinary Sunday. Mark Power inside of 20 minutes had me thinking of new angles to approach the boxing I’ve been shooting for the last year. Working with me to find footholds where I could make the work about something human, or more human. David and I talked about the editing process, and how personal it is, and how you should throw out the work and start over as much as possible. Chris asked me about lenses, and was too kind when he said that the photos reminded him of Raging Bull (swoon), and that I knew how to capture a mood. All of them in a matter of minutes were able to provide me with a viewpoint I could not get on my own ever, and it energized me.

Part of what was so great about the experience was how genuine and gracious these men were. I can’t imagine the day of 20 minute rotations looking at work from people like me who can span levels from being professional photojournalists to just starting out. To make conversations with strangers about something so intimate as their photography, whether you document or construct. Each of the gentlemen were respectful, thoughtful, and giving which are not common traits amongst people on a everyday basis. The experience made me feel normal, like what I was doing was the way to do it. That everything you do to create something is the right way to create it. You can make it better, you can “bust it open”, you can constantly revise and revisit but your process is your process and it’s how it should be. That part of this is about just being honest, simple, curious, and sincere - and that creates not just good work, but a better self.

So bravo to Magnum, kudos to me, rock to all the photographers I met today - it was like Christmas.