Snapshot for Success

By Stephanie Moore, Director of Visual Arts Initiatives, VSA arts Headquarters

If you have ever looked into showing and selling your artwork, you realize that most galleries, museums and other exhibition facilities routinely ask for 35 mm slides before they will request originals. A request for slides is an opportunity to document your talents and sell your abilities. In an art world that depends heavily on slides, good quality examples are instrumental in getting a show, winning a competition, or making a sale. Simply put, bad slides decrease your chances for success.

Invest some time and money when preparing slides for your portfolio. Several books and resources are available to walk you through the steps of taking your own slides. Photographing Your Artwork: a Step-by-Step Guide to Taking High Quality Slides at an Affordable Price by Russell Hart (Ohio: North Light Books, 1987) is highly recommended. Art calendar has a monograph called Successful Slides: Photographing Your Artwork that is available through their Web site http://www.artcalendar.com for $9.95 plus shipping.

Consider having a professional shoot your slides. Your state arts council or local arts organizations should have leads for affiliated photographers who might be able to assist. Your local camera store or film developing studio might also have connections. In addition, you might want to computerize your slides so that you can reproduce multiple copies at a minimum cost. Today, many places accept JPEG, TIFF or other electronic formats. You should make sure that the gallery or exhibition facility will accept these formats, and it is always a good idea to have original slides of your work on file.

image of slide for an artist's portfolio with proper labels

Slides should be properly labeled. At the minimum slides should have your last name and the title of the piece. Most competitions will provide you with a slide format that includes instructions for proper labeling. You should keep careful records of your slides and where they have been distributed. Never send your original slides. It is also a good idea to touch base every now and then with the sites that have your slides on file, and you may want to update them periodically so that they are familiar with your current direction.

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