I hesitate to disagree with someone who is consistently selling one hundred pieces a year. I do not sell nearly that number.
I favor portfolio reviews, and especially those multi-day reviews, such as FOTO FEST not in order to have the reviewer tell me how they would have made the images differently, but to gain effective exposure to people who can show my work to buyers, to whom I have no access.
Perhaps, my view is in the minority here. I attend to get exposure for my work that I would be unable to get otherwise. I select reviewers who own galleries, and use it as an opportunity to pitch my work. I look at the reviewer's website to see what their customers buy - reasoning that they would not be showing what they cannot sell. Sometimes I am clearly not a fit. Other times, the gallerist is already already representing someone whose work is close enough to my own that my time would be better spent with someone else.
Then, there is the unexpected. In two instances, one that happened to me and in another case to another artist, the reviewer said they liked the work, but it was not right for them, but that they knew someone for whom it would be perfect. In my case, the reviewer got up walked over to the desk where another reviewer was conducting a review and recommended me. The person to whom I was recommended saw my work later that day, and has been representing me since then.
In reading all the responses that you have received earlier than my own, the comment that reflected most closely my own was, Cooter's, to pay attention to opinions of your customers and your own.
If you are selling one hundred pieces a year, you have to be doing a lots of things right. Maybe changing what you are showing is not in your best interest.
Jerry Reed
