Pitching in 90 seconds: Five tips for a successful portfolio presentation.
Fara Phoebe Zetzsche (FAZ) and Stefanie Preuin (SZ) visited our campus in Hannover.
Photo: Tobias Eineder
90 seconds is not a lot of time to present one’s work or a single story – but that is the reality when photographers meet the people who decide whether to publish images at a festival like in Arles or Perpignan or in the elevator of a publishing house. A quick conversation between two appointments or on the way to the next meeting to make oneself known or to be remembered is an important skill for journalists. In order to share this part of professional reality with students of the study program Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography On June 14, 2023, the photo editors Stefanie Preuin from the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Fara Phoebe Zetzsche from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung came to the seminar “Editorial Photography / Photographer as Entrepreneur” of Prof. Lars Bauernschmitt and viewed the work of students from the 4th semester.
As close to reality as possible, the event took place in front of the building in the sun, where almost something like a festival atmosphere arose. Stefanie Preuin and Fara Phoebe Zetzsche both studied at the former Photojournalism and Documentary Photography program and went through the same training as the current students. The seminar will be continued in July, then with Susanne Baumann from Stern.
Photo: Kristina Kaysen
How to present your portfolio to editors
Five tips from Stefanie Preuin and Fara Phoebe Zetzsche
1. Prepare for the interview. Familiarize yourself in advance with the publication you are presenting yourself to. What topics and visual languages will be published there? Are you looking for image series or single images?
2. Introduce yourself with your first and last name. Where do you live, and in which regions do you travel more often? Do you possibly have a second home in a place that is reported more frequently?
3. What is your USP? What languages do you speak? What topics are you interested in?
4. Pay attention to the external form of the presentation. A crumpled portfolio or a smudged screen on digital devices are no-gos.
5. Always have a story or two up my sleeve. Maybe you have made your editor curious, and (s)he would like to see more work.
Your contact partners will be happy to assist you with your personal concerns. However, due to the large number of enquiries, we ask you to first check our FAQ to see if your question may already have been answered.
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