Photography Portfolio

[MissyFancyPants]

I have applied to 8 schools and have now heard from all of them. 7 of them said NO. ONE of them gave me a phone interview last week and I am still waiting to hear back from them on their decision. One thing that stuck out in our conversation was the 'tightness' of my work. He had mentioned how refined my work was and indicated that they wish to see more of a random sampling of work rather than 1-2 bodies of work.

This was news to me! All through my (very long and extensive) undergrad experience I was encouraged and pushed to make cohesive bodies of work. I was prepared for application processes by showing 1-2 of these current bodies of work. Now I am utterly confused. What did you guys submit? How did you go about it?

I used 17 images of a well developed series, 3 images of my current work in progress and 1 video. I thought this would be the best option as the past 2 colleges I went to have prepped me in such a way.

[RedPotato]

My thoughts would be that your professors or whomever were helping you develop an employment portfolio, to show places that might hire you. They would want to see cohesiveness, and a portfolio specifically targeted to their market. A graduate program, on the other hand would want to see a wide range of work, to fully understand what your potential. Different objectives, different portfolios.

Let me know if this helps.

Full disclosure: I was a studio/commercial art major, not a photographer, but this is what my professors have been telling me.