That gallery owner in Santa Fe questioned my portfolio order and she was right

She said my strongest piece was buried at number 7 because I arranged everything chronologically instead of by impact, and after I swapped the first three around, two buyers asked about the opener before they even scrolled past it, so why do we default to timeline order in our portfolios anyway?

2 comments

2 Comments

beth_reed1mo ago

A buddy of mine shoots weddings and his portfolio was all one long timeline. Random couple hired him, said they loved the shot of the bride crying happy tears with her grandma, but that photo was buried on page four. He told me if they hadn't scrolled that far, he would've lost the gig. Now he puts the wildest, most emotional frame first and keeps the timeline stuff near the back for people who actually care about the story. Timeline order is just lazy thinking, honestly.

tara7931mo ago

Damn, YES. This is exactly what I went through with my own stuff last year. I had this one landscape shot, all moody and lit up by a passing storm, and I had it buried near the end because technically it came after a bunch of earlier work. Someone finally told me my best piece was hiding, and when I moved it to slot one, I got three messages in a day from people asking about prints. Chronological order feels safe but it's really just us being scared to show what we think is our best, you know? Like we're waiting for people to earn it. Nah, they don't scroll that deep. Front load the punch.