I’m lucky to belong to professional photographic bodies that encourage members to submit their work to regular portfolio reviews. Usually this will involve selecting 10-20 images I’m proud of and then either emailing them to, or (gulp) sitting across the table from, another photographer or art buyer who’s got a lot more experience in the game than I have.
There are few things more important to growth as a photographer than these sessions. But whenever I receive written response to some work, the first thing I do is sit down with the feedback and get out three different marker pens: green for ‘that’s a very good point,’ blue for, ‘well, maybe’, and yellow for, ‘I really could not care less about what they have to say here’.
I’ve got to be careful not to react defensively, but I think it’s an important process to go through with feedback. Photography is after all an art – and art is subjective. When someone is giving you feedback, often what they are really saying is ‘this is how I would have done it if I had been you’ – and art would be meaningless if we all did things the same way. The very thing that brings a photo to life for me may be the exact same thing which destroys it for you. That’s art. It’s personal.
The other thing about subjectivity is, it’s a bit uncomfortable. It makes it hard to know when you’re on the right path. So we create rules about what art should be and what it should look like to tame that subjectivity and bring us into a more stable, reliable rule based order. It gives us something to judge our work on and try and suss out how well we’re doing. But the truth is our rules aren’t stable. A rule that helps you might hamper someone else.
So if rules aren’t a reliable guide and all criticism is subjective, why have we made feedback such an important part of our workshop?
For starters, we noticed that while there were plenty of people in London who would take you out on long photo walks around Covent Garden there weren’t many who would help you grow by sharing a thoughtful critique of what you’d produced. And we wanted to be a little bit different.
But more importantly, we know that there are few more important things at helping you develop your photography than discovering how other people look at your images. Because you don’t actually know, unless you put yourself through a system of feedback. Sure, your friends might tell you they love your work and you may get a string of high-five emojis on Instagram, but (as great as that feels) that’s empty feedback. You don’t learn from it. But as you discover what other people read into the photos you’re taking, you get better at communicating through your images.
Receiving feedback isn’t always easy, so when it’s time for the group to look through your images, try and keep the following things in mind.
1. Aim to not take it personally. As I’ve already spent a lot of time saying, all art is subjective and what we are giving is an opinion. If you disagree that is absolutely fine. In fact we’d love to hear why you disagree. But please give proper consideration to the feedback before deciding for sure that your opinion differs and you aren’t just being defensive.
2. Remember that what we have to say is about the image, not about you as the creator of the image. We’re not here to filter all the attendees into good and bad photographers, we’re just here to help you think more deeply about the ways you make photographs.
3. We’re providing feedback because we really want you to walk away from the workshop feeling like you’ve improved as a photographer, and in our opinion, this is the best way to achieve that.
4. What we’re passing on are lessons from our own personal experience, having been through exactly the same learning process that you’re going through. We’re all on this journey together.
Remember my yellow marker pens, the ones for ‘I couldn’t care less about this comment’? Even if I got a written portfolio review and only used my yellow marker pen on it, I would still consider the process to have been worthwhile. Why? Because by listening to feedback – even by choosing to reject all of it – I’ve learned a little bit more about what’s important to me in a photograph, and what’s important to other people in a photograph. I’ve become a better communicator through photography.
We understand that it’s impossible to go back in time and take a photo again. But by going through the process we hope to hone and develop your instincts as a photographer, so the next time you see an interesting moment unfolding on the street, you’ll be more adept at capturing that scene in the most effective way possible. We hope that the feedback will have helped you grow as a creator.
Marc
If you agree that receiving supportive and thoughtful criticism of your photography will help you develop your craft then find out more about our workshop on this site and click on the Book Here button below.