THE NEW YORK TIMES LENS PORTFOLIO REVIEWS: Day 1 + 2

THE NEW YORK TIMES LENS PORTFOLIO REVIEW

DAY 1

I was honored to be invited as a Reviewer for the third annual "New York Portfolio Review" sponsored by the New York Times Lens Blog and the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Graduate School of Journalism. The reviews took place over a recent weekend with Day One for photographers 21 and older, each of whom received six private critiques; Day Two for photographers 18 to 27 years old, with four private critiques for each participant, rounded out with talks by Santiago Lyon, director of photography for The Associated Press, on building an editorial portfolio, and by the photographer Phil Toledano on the creative process. There were several other great speakers during the day including collector WM. Hunt, photographers David Guttenfelder, Radcliffe 'Ruddy' Roye and Austin Merril of Everyday Africa, who joined New York Times Lens Blog co-editor, James Estrin and Kerri MacDonald for a very lively panel discussion.

Of the twelve photographers I was scheduled to review on Day One, and a few I met on my own time during breaks, I was impressed by every project shown and want to share some of it with L'Oeil de la Photographie readers HERE.

THE NEW YORK TIMES LENS PORTFOLIO REVIEW

DAY 2

James Estrin took the lead along with his Lens Blog colleagues David Gonzalez and Whitney Richardson, and Laura Roumanos of United Photo Industries and Photoville, screening and editing thousands of (free) entries down to the chosen photographers who were then assigned one-on-one portfolio reviews with some of the top photography editors, curators, gallerists and book publishers. Estrin noted, "We have looked through over 3500 entrants for the free NY portfolio review sponsored by the NY Times Lens blog and CUNY J School and whittled it down to those accepted. The amount of excellent work was overwhelming...I can firmly say there is wonderful and surprising photography being done all over the world by people of all age, race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. I apologize to those who didn't get accepted this year. Thank you for sharing your work. It was an honor to look at it so closely. Please try again next year." Both days were extremely successful with reviewers and photographers making beneficial connections.

On Day Two, of the eight reviews, most were recent student graduates and this was their first portfolio review. I was impressed by the level of work and want to share some of it with L'Oeil de la Photographie readers HERE.