“Let me see your work.”
You’re nervous. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Your coffee is wearing off and this office seems kind of hot. You quickly go down to your big, flat and zippered portfolio. You bought this thing years ago and have used it for years. Lately the zipper has been giving you problems. You hold up one finger and tell the possible boss sitting in front of you, “Just one moment.”
You grab the portfolio’s zipper and begin to zip it open. It gets stuck. You suddenly feel your face growing red and the temperature in the office seems to increase. You suddenly start to notice the humming sound of the computer and the air conditioner. This can’t be happening. You fiddle with the zipper and get it open a bit more. It feels like it’s been 10 minutes since the man sitting in front of you asked to see your work. You decide to just go for it and pull something out for him to see. You feel a bead of sweat up near your hair line start to form. Gosh, it’s so hot in here.
Finally you grab one painting that you did of a sunset. It’s a good one and you are proud of that one. You grab it and then look up to the boss who is waiting albeit patiently. You attempt to pull the paper out of your portfolio and then a loud riiiip echoes through the room. Your heart suddenly stops beating and you know exactly what just happened. But you want to make believe that it was nothing so you don’t swing your head to see what just happened. You make a small smile and a silly laugh. Then slowly look down at the painting that took you 3 weeks to create with a big rip through the sun itself.
Interview over.
This is a ficticious account but I can see it happening to me. I'm an artist of sorts and I have these nightmares too often. Then it dawned on my one day that I could scan my art and make a photo book from it. That photo book would then become my portfolio. No worries about ripping your "sunset" or your "nude descending the stairs."
I chose a big size for my portfolio. Actually I have a couple different ones depending on who I want to show my work to. Depending on your artistic endeavors though it might lend itself to a small size.
Have you experienced this before? Have you taken a photo book to an interview as your portfolio?
