How to build an international portfolio

Ever since I started photography it was my dream to be known and to work internationally. Obviously if you live in a small town in Austria you won’t magically be invited to shoot a big campaign in New York and to fly to Paris the next day for a meeting.

Those things aren’t out of reach though, no matter where you come from or where you’re based. All you need to do is show people and brands that you do work internationally. Today I’m gonna tell you my secrets on how to achieve exactly that!

Number one – keep your website, social media, business cards, anything in English. Everybody around the world will be able to access those materials and read them, which already makes your work more visible to people outside your country/language.

Number two – whenever you go on vacation, take your camera with you and try to shoot in that city/country. For this you’re gonna find a few agencies close to where you’re staying. Write them an email explaining that you will be in town for a few days and that you would love to work with them on a Testshoot. The Agency will send you a few models and you can do just one or also muliple shoots, depending on how much time you have.

Your photos will then show up on the Agency’s website, on the model’s portfolio and social media and you can geotag the photos to a different place too!

Number three – get international clients! This one might sound a little intimidating, but all you need to do is to find a business that is in need of photos which is based outside of your country. This is super easy with Makeup or Skincare brands, since they can simply ship their products to your location.

You can then tag that client in your photos and geotag the photos to where the client is based. And your portfolio will also show that you worked with a client in Italy for example, even though you never even left your studio.