What should I do with the overseas study portfolio of photography major?

What should I do with my photography portfolio?

Photographic works can be basically divided into three categories: documentary, art and business.

British art colleges have higher academic and research requirements for artistic photography collections. Therefore, it is not only based on the visual impact, but also needs a certain depth and research value to apply for the photography portfolio of world famous schools.

Usually, the creative process of a project should be a process from inspiration to practice, modification, re-practice and finally presentation. It is necessary to coordinate the previous ideas with the situations encountered in practice and constantly revise them to achieve a balanced and ultimately perfect state.

1. Inspiration source

The source of inspiration suggests that you can learn from various artists, such as painting, sculpture, installation, etc. Not only in the category of photography, because the essence of artistic photography is to learn artistic thinking and take photography as the main medium of its artistic expression.

Look at the works of mature artists, whether there is emotional voice, and whether there is anything worth learning, which will help to make a collection of works ~

So how do you determine a theme?

I suggest that you can start from your own personal experience, the people or things you are interested in, and there is no need to make it difficult to establish the theme, because in the final analysis, university tutors hope to get to know you through your portfolio, so we can imagine the portfolio as a medium of expression of our attitude towards the world.

I suggest you start with what you know best and are good at, and you can show yourself to your tutor well. There is no need to pursue so-called greatness. If you start a project around a topic you don't understand or are not interested in, it's hard to impress people.

Step 2 study

The importance of research in the project should not be underestimated, just as the universities mentioned above pay more and more attention to academics and research. Research is the existence of statement as a theoretical support, which can reflect the depth and research of the project.

Therefore, if you can clearly explain the research process you have done in your statement, you will also add points to your portfolio ~

3. Personal style

For the portfolio, a portfolio that can reflect a distinctive personal style and personal recognition is also a move that stands out from many contestants.

How to find your own style and share two methods:

First of all, we should start from our daily life, get into the habit of daily shooting, learn to examine and observe the surrounding environment, so as to improve our sensitivity and observation, and cultivate a unique perspective. Then we should sort out and classify our own photos, find out what we are interested in, draw rules, and gradually form our own style.

The second method is to look at the works of other artists and photographers, collect what you like, and then sort out and summarize a general style preference, so that you can try that direction more in your own shooting process in the future.

4. Expression mode

Photography can be expressed in many ways. In the collection of works, a good way of expression can add points to the project and even make people shine. At the same time, we can also consider combining photography with other art majors more flexibly, such as self-portrait, secondary creation and even making a small device ourselves.