Building a portfolio that gets you found

A portfolio is not a collection of your most beautiful photos. It is the tool that decides whether a client finds you, then whether they choose you. These two functions — being found, being chosen — call for precise decisions. Here they are.

Show what you want to do again

A portfolio attracts what it shows. If you include a type of work out of habit or convenience, you will draw requests for that type of work. Show only the work you want to be commissioned for again. The rest, however accomplished, pulls you away from what you want to photograph.

Consistency over completeness

Twenty images consistent in their intention say more than fifty disparate ones. A client is not looking for proof that you can do everything; they are looking to recognise an eye. A consistent selection is legible — for them, and for search engines.

Be locatable

Most clients look for a photographer by place: a city, a region. If your portfolio and your page do not clearly state where you work and how far you travel, you stay invisible on those searches — whatever the quality of your images. To be findable, you must first be locatable.

A complete page is a found page

On Kissmefortytimes as elsewhere, a rich page — a clear introduction, a service area, careful images — ranks better and is cited more often than a near-empty one. Talent is not enough to be found: you must also make yourself legible. That is work, not a formality.

Not just captured. Created.

A good portfolio does not show everything you can do. It shows, clearly and in the right place, what you want to be found for.