Are You Experienced?

In a recent discussion on the ASMPproAdvice forum, the question was asked: "I have a stack of magazines with my photos in them, should I scan them and have a category on my website showing them? how much does it matter to potential clients?"

How does one communicate experience, value and a (long) history of publication to a prospective client without showing tearsheets? I have a selection of tearsheets on my web site if anyone's interested in looking at them, but I long ago took them out of my print portfolio. Why?

One of my first clients was a Sr VP/Creative Director/Art Supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather in NYC. He advised me to take the tearsheets out saying, "I'm tired of looking at other art directors' mistakes." They were gone in sixty seconds!

As a compromise, and a reference to my 25 years of shooting for publication, the image shown above is the last page of my print portfolio.