An Interview with Amy Yvonne Yu

by | Aug 11, 2015 | Strictly Business Blog

With over 13 years of experience on the agency, production and client side across still, video and experiential media, working alongside brilliant creators like Albert Watson, Cass Bird, Jill Greenberg, and The Selby, Amy Yvonne Yu knows exactly what makes or breaks a portfolio review. Amy has given many talks and interviews regarding the ever-changing trends in image creation across different platforms and recently served as a juror for ASMP’s Best of 2015 Annual. I find Amy’s forthright candor delightfully refreshing and her insights are spot on. Enjoy!  ~Judy Herrmann, Editor

When reviewing a photographer’s portfolio or body of work, what are you hoping to see?

I am always looking for a strong point of view and a consistent body of work. Consistency is especially important. My biggest pet peeve is seeing images that do not belong. They are extremely distracting and disrupt the flow of a body of work, which then leads me to lose interest.

What advice can you offer about selecting work to show?

Make sure each and every image is great and that less is more. It’s about quality, not quantity.

I get hundreds of promos each week. If a photographer includes even one mediocre image, I lose interest almost immediately. There is so much great work out there that you really have to work harder to stay engaged once mediocre work pops up. Those images really do more harm than good.

A photographer has seconds to get my attention. I have timed this out – for email promos, you have 4 seconds to make a first impression. If your email makes it into my Inbox (instead of my Spam folder), I’ll read your subject line. If it captures my attention, then I may have to load the images depending what email program I use. If you do not lose my interest based on the images in your e-mailer and I’m not already familiar with your work, I’ll click through to your site to see more. And, if the work on your site is not interesting enough to capture my attention, I’ll close that tab on my browser.

Each one of those steps is an opportunity for you to lose my interest. It’s even quicker if it’s a printed promo since I can see it immediately so really that’s a 2 second engagement before I decide to check out more or not.

What role does sequencing play in how you respond to a portfolio?

Sequencing plays an integral role in the flow of a portfolio. Most people do not even think about this when doing their portfolio. Photographers are most often their own worst editors. I can typically tell how they did it by looking at it: chronological, by color, by region, autobiographical, etc. Those systems almost always don’t work in terms of aesthetic flow. Think of it as movie: it should build and take you on a visual journey that makes sense with a beginning, middle and end.

What about mixing work from different genres or different aesthetics?

I like to see different genres mixed in. Your aesthetic overall should be similar and they should all work together. It’s stronger that way anyhow.

I don’t think you have to show just one aesthetic, but if, for whatever reason, the aesthetics between genres are very different, then I would much prefer seeing that separated or have a completely different site altogether. If you choose to show multiple styles, I do expect them all to be equally strong.

If I am hiring a photographer, I am hiring him/her for his/her point of view that works for the campaign I am working on so that point of view has to be strong and it has to be clear. After all, I don’t hire mechanics to give me a facial.

When you call in a portfolio, what do you want to see?

When calling in portfolios for specific projects, I want to see work that’s been customized to my needs. In fact, that is how you can win a job. If I am reaching out to a photographer for something very specific, it means I am considering you for a campaign, and more than likely I need a PDF or a set of images that is specific to what I am looking to shoot so I can sell you to my creative, then the client.

Finding the right match is always important. When you’re making your prospect list, you should figure out your demographic and clients that your work most aligns with and reach out to them first. Again, I don’t typically hire mechanics to give me a facial and I am very busy with projects first and then if there is leftover time then it goes to reviewing portfolios, which is a tiny fragment of my time that thousands of people are fighting for.

Any advice for how photographers should behave during face-to-face reviews?

You should take this opportunity to make the potential client know you as a person. We want to know about you and how that translates into your work.I tend to pay attention to how engaged you are with your career. I like to see that you are still excited in creating imagery.

Also, don’t be late and try to take criticism well. It may be difficult to do but if a reviewer is reacting to something well or negatively, you should pay attention and figure out why.

Learn more about Amy at: http://virtuallynonexistent.com and be sure to check out her extensive interviews (and fabulous quotes from clients including my fav from ASMP legend Albert Watson: “My wife said that Amy is fabulous, and Amy is fabulous.”) on her about page!

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