JEA High School Photography Portfolio Presentations
Have you ever walked into a room and felt as if you belonged?
I remember the first time I saw Mark Murray and Bradley Wilson. We attended a national convention for the Journalism Education Association. There were about six thousand other people, but I figured I would know these two for a long time. At that convention, Bradley asked if could help critique photography portfolios. The simple meeting led to the creation of a popular workshop that has informed photography portfolios.
Mark Murray photographs the audience before the portfolio presentation at a JEA national conference.
When Mark Murray and I created our workshop, photographers submitted prints on matte boards. At our first presentation in Nashville, I photocopied handouts from Pulitzer Prize winning photographer John Kaplan’s book Photo Portfolio Success. (John granted permission and helped me prepare content.) I underestimated the size of our audience. We needed 125 more packets.
Bradley Wilson prepares digital files for the second round of judging at the JEA national photo contest.
Eventually, Bradley Wilson moved all of the national contests to a digital format. Now we can judge half of the contests before we arrive and provide large group critiques to an entire audience. More photos from a few workshops and large group critiques are at the bottom of the post.
Jim McNay helps more often than he realizes. If I need something, I just drop his name… or I ask him and he helps. He is the first to help and the last to take credit. McNay helped me understand how to construct a portfolio and how to critique. McNay’s SportsShooter online portfolio critiques will be remembered in social media history instructional texts. He was (and still is) brilliant.