Whether you’re an aspiring photographer or a professional looking to further develop your career, portfolio reviews can serve as an opportunity to gain expert advice from industry professionals to shape your practice and make contacts that could prove pivotal for your career. Some pre-preparation can mean you get the most out of these encounters.

Here, Magnum photographers and professionals from Magnum offer advice on how to get the best out of an encounter that, on average, might take only 15 to 20 minutes.

You can learn about all forthcoming Magnum educational opourtunities, as well as Magnum’s online on-demand photographic courses, here.

Expectations and goals

Before doing any edits of your work for your portfolio review meeting, firstly think about what you want to get out of the session. Magnum photographer Bieke Depoorter explains: “It could be feedback on visual language, editing and sequencing advice, networking for future outlet options around exhibiting and publishing or numerous other reasons – just remember to have an aim and leave with something you did not have when you began. Another part of this is knowing who is going to be reviewing your work – and how they can best help you. You can get many different perspectives depending if you speak to a photographer, to an editor, to a curator and so on.”

Once you have a goal, then look for reviewers who might be best placed to advise you. “Choose the reviewer well,” advises Magnum nominee Emin Özmen. “Your work has to fit with the media / editorial line of the reviewer. If not, you will lose time and he/she will too. Do not hesitate to show your work also to other photographers, discussions are always a good way to get more ideas.”