040 — Portfolio Meetings
4 Things I've done, thought about, read, collected, observed or discovered this week.
Notes from the Lab is a newsletter that delves deep into the creative process, rituals, and thought process behind being a photographer and filmmaker.
This project is a journal of my projects and experiments. A logbook of everything I learn, a record of inspirations and takeaways from my journey as a parent and artist. I want to share my creative progress relentlessly — because gatekeeping sucks.
HOUSEKEEPING
I've primarily worked in the shadows for the last couple of weeks. Some commercial projects that I took over from the previous year. I've also pitched for a few new ones and worked at the studio and on the road on some personal, long-term, and short-term stills and moving pictures projects.
It was bliss to log off for a moment. I even temporarily ditched my iPhone for a dumbphone at home, as I didn’t want to be around attention-grabbing screens throughout the day.
In my spare time, I read a LOT of books, developed an unhealthy obsession with collecting photo books (look at the bookshelf section below, TBC), started to teach myself proper cooking, and picked up my work on paper again. But more on that later.
Taking this time off social media to focus on work was a blessing. It made me reconsider the necessity of being constantly present online by sacrificing being present in the real world. But truth be told, it’s a recurring theme I have thought and written about many times before, and it will surely be a continuous struggle. But I won’t give up and find my peace with this mess that is our shared addiction to shiny screens.
But I notice a tiny glimpse of the same internet fatigue in my peers, a deep longing for real connections and experiences.
To kick off this year right, I returned to something I enjoyed doing before the big C19 mess: portfolio meetings in person. More below…
Hugs and kisses,
— Ramon
I. AFTER COVID MEETINGS (IN PERSON, FINALLY!)
Before the world went partially shut, it was a lovely tradition to go on an annual city trip to meet agencies, art buyers, and art directors to show and discuss my current Portfolio. Just to be replaced by endless and very impersonal Zoom/Webex/Teams meetings that didn’t feel like the real thing. Nothing beats meeting in person, honest critique, and long-lasting in-person relationships.
This year, my agent and I decided to pick up on this lovely and very insightful tradition, and I packed my car, bike, and iPad to go on the first portfolio tour after the crushing C, starting with Hamburg. We made eight appointments in 3 days, in rapid succession (sweaty pants after riding the city for hours), and I met new and familiar faces.
This year, in contrast to the last meetings a couple of years ago, we decided to bring only an iPad with a few streamlined presentations and a selection of motion projects instead of a printed portfolio. Going to agency meetings without a printed portfolio was unthinkable a couple of years ago.
But, nowadays, especially with a stronger focus on motion projects, it’s much more widely accepted by agencies to discuss the images on a screen.
Although I am a massive lover of printed matter, presenting my pictures on an iPad better suits my commercial work than selecting a few images in a printed book. This way, I can present quite a broad amount of work and complete series in a relatively short time, adding motion projects in the company to the still images and getting a sense of what the agency wants to discuss.
See a glimpse into two of the presentations below:
These are excerpts from two portfolios, one more personal work and people-based and the other focussed on advertising work, as I was mainly meeting advertising agencies on my tour.
I’m using Dropbox as the container and a couple of PowerPoint presentations for the images, as they scroll better than PDF. Sharing portfolios directly after the meeting via Dropbox is also relatively easy. Simple.
Let’s get out there and meet more often, will we?
II. WOLFGANG LAIB FOR ART BASEL
Earlier this year, Art Basel commissioned me to meet German artist Wolfgang Laib for a session at his estate in a remote village in southern Germany. Despite getting stuck in a farmers’ protest for two hours, I eventually reached the vast site covered in snow and freezingly cold. Wolfgang himself was a humble, almost zen-like figure, floating in the snow and speaking quietly with a hint of Swabian accent. He insisted that I am only allowed to show the images in the context of the publication, so head over here to read the article written by Kathrin Heinrich:
How I became an artist: Wolfgang Laib
Photo Editor: Karim Crippa
III. BOOKSHELF
Notes on Ordinary Spaces - Ola Rindal
2019, Libraryman
Ethereal images of spaces and family by Paris-based Norwegian photographer Ola Rindal. I’ve been a long-time fan of the book Design and Art Direction by Tony Cederteg and the publications under his moniker Libraryman, and this book is no exception. Excellent textured paper and ample space for each picture form an almost dreamlike sequence of ordinary spaces and seemingly familiar scenes.
IV. ETC.
Google: “dutch angle”
Thank me later.
haha I love the dutch angle term! naturally
Does the term Dutch angle not originate from some German filmers? 'German' in German is Deutsch