The Conundrum of Creating a Professional *and* Interactive Portfolio

As I've been working on the Members Only portion of my website, I've also been trying to build in some additional functionality. Just, yaknow, get everything really clean and smooth running. I have a tendency to rush things like layout releases and whatnot, so I definitely have the work cut out for me (and karmically due, I guess).

One of the things I've been working on adding is an extensive, publicly-viewable portfolio, run on the Gallery2 system. It's what I--and probably most every other tech-savvy independent adult site owner--use to organize my private image gallery, so using it in the public portion of my site seems logical. Thus I built a solid portfolio; each photographer has their own album with links to their other websites/network profiles, every image is tagged with appropriate key words, and each album's photos are logically arranged from most recent to oldest. I mean, what more can you ask for from a good, online modeling portfolio?

The irrevocable answer seems to be "personality".

I've sent the link off to a handful of good friends, all of whom I've worked with (or at least, talked with) in a professional regard, but who also happen to be people I trust will give me an honest opinion ("zomg does my ass look fat in this photo?!" "yes, but your ass IS fat." "good point."). And the comments back are so similar across the board, something I really had not expected. I think one person phrased it well when he wrote, "Feels, generic coming from a mind like yours. Yes, it's WELL organized but there is also something intangibly 'you' that's absent."

Wait wait wait, my modeling portfolio--which is obviously FULL of "me"--isn't "me" enough? I don't know how that happens, but after taking a short break from working on the overall site to play WoW (i.e. I am avoiding most responsibilities and have been gaming 8+ hours a day since Thursday or Friday, leveling a Belf rogue*), I can kind of see what they mean. My response to the aforementioned person was that the concept of inserting an accurate representation of my intangible qualities into an online image gallery is a fairly daunting task. But one that I must undertake.

I think a lot of it is coming from the colour scheme. At this time, it is pretty much all white, with some gray accents, and all the links are blue (I am working with a user-provided theme). Now, when a person thinks about what colours represent me personally, white, gray, and blue are definitely not in the final round. Maybe some aspects of me could use one of those colours, but Merrick as a whole? No, not at all. Not in the least. My colour theme is a very established black, red, and white; I've been living that theme online since 2004 and in real life since around 2000 (although mostly unwittingly, up until late). So colour is definitely one of my first steps in making this thing seem more "me".

And it's been a hard decision, but I think the tagword cloud in the sidebar has to go. I don't know; I think it's neat. But tag clouds are most definitely one of those "Web2.0" cliches, and my portfolio has been accused (by another person) as being "too Web2.0 slick". This was another review I hadn't expected, but it's good to know. The tag cloud is a feature I had not integrated into the Members Only gallery, but I've had a few select members testing out that portion of the site and they all really like the "Web2.0" changes. Perhaps this says something of the nature in which people are viewing these images/albums, and how the layout and navigation either supplement or hinder their overall intent in being there--same images, different purpose. Yes, I would say that is likely. Interesting.

Perhaps my issue is partly that I am trying to do too much with this portfolio. Let me back track a little and explain it to you: there are two main albums, one being the "official" portfolio (the creme de la creme, if you will) and the other being the "extended" portfolio (showing multiple images from every look and shoot I've done with every photographer I've worked with). The former is obviously much smaller and requires less extensive organization; the latter I summarized in the second paragraph. Both albums are organized with square thumbnails, and are, well, very well organized. I have a fetish for meticulous organization, so I can at least say that this portfolio represents that portion of me. ;)

I think the reason I am torn here is because I want to essentially combine two different things that people usually don't combine. On one hand I want these albums to be interactive, hence the keyword albums, the ability to leave comments and rate each photo, etc. Yet on the other, I want to present my work in a professional manner. Unfortunately, artists rarely seek out or appreciate critical interaction with their work once it is "published". They get all uppity and personally affronted if you breath any hint of "you should have done..." or "I think I like the other one more..." (and I don't blame them). Because with artists, EVERYTHING is art, even the format and order the art is presented in. Nobody can reasonably mess with that, because it ruins the artist's intent with his/her work. Yet if the artist (or, in this case, model) is more than welcoming of input from the public, and presents his/her work in a manner conducive to doing so, it is no longer seen as "art" by other artists, and loses professional merit.

What a conundrum I now find myself in.

*if you play Horde on the Korgath server (not the same as Kargath) let me know!