The Top 10 Best Photography Portfolio Examples of 2024 (+ Tips for Designing Your Own)

A digital photography portfolio is a must for both student and professional photographers. As a place to showcase your best work and display your creative process, it's a powerful tool for marketing a freelance photography business, presenting your student projects, or developing a portfolio resume for a job search.

There are many ways to design a photography portfolio to best display your photography samples and illustrate your photography style. In this article, we'll show you some of our favorite photography portfolio examples of 2024, explain the benefits of each portfolio's design choices and give you pro tips on what to include in your own.

What to Include in a Photography Portfolio

Online photography portfolios are as diverse as the photographers who design them. That being said, there are multiple elements that most digital photography portfolios include.

Photography Samples

The most important part of your portfolio is your photographs. Choose samples of your work that are representative of the types of photography you do, and include only your best work. How many samples you include and how you divide them is up to you, but aim for visual impact and easy navigation.

About Me

An About Me section or page can be as simple as a couple of lines or as detailed as a CV. In fact, as you'll see below, some photographers include their CV in their portfolio. Including an About Me helps site visitors connect to you as an individual and can be a great place to share your professional and educational experience.

Contact Information

Once you've impressed someone, you want to make it easy for them to reach out to you. You may include a separate Contact page with a contact form, list your email, or include your email or phone number as buttons in your Nav menu. That way, your next project is never too far away.

Social Media Accounts

Since photography is a visual medium, it lends itself well to social media. Many photographers have built an audience online and landed new clients and partnerships through social media. Including social media buttons linked to your accounts on your photography portfolio means site visitors can become followers at the click of a button. We also recommend linking your portfolio in your social media bios, so followers can access your body of work and learn more about your services.

Optional Additions

In addition to the above, you may choose to include:

• CV/Resume

• Services Page

• Online Store

• Case Studies

• Projects and Photo Series

• Awards and Media

• Other Types of Work and Services (writing, design, marketing, etc)

10 Best Photography Portfolio Examples

We've gathered some of the most stunning photography portfolio examples here to help inspire you. From one-page portfolios to online stores to sell your prints, each of our photography portfolio examples will show you innovative ways to highlight your work and grow your audience.

1.Sarah Stevens

Sarah Stevens is a freelance photographer who specializes in portraiture, fashion and product photography. She's a Photography and Videography graduate from De Montfort University.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN: Sarah takes advantage of a full-frame grid design for the featured photos on her Home page. This creates a stunning visual impact, and each individual photo can be clicked on for a more detailed view. Hovering over an individual photo reveals its title and text describing the project.

PRO TIP: Sarah includes a separate portfolio page to highlight a case study, her art photography project called "Hand-Me-Downs". Bringing attention to a specific art or client project allows you to detail your creative process and highlight your style.

2. Donovan Colon

Donovan Colon is a self-taught photographer based in New York. Under his photography brand TimesUp, he's done everything from sports photography to wedding shoots.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN: Donovan keeps it simple with a one-page portfolio that keeps the focus on his photos. A full frame grid design highlights his sports photography and portrait work while giving an immediate sense of his visual storytelling.

PRO TIP: Donovan includes a short About Me section on his landing page. Letting people know a little about you and your experience as a photographer helps them connect to your work

3. Marc Phillipe Legein

Marc Phillipe Legain is an art photographer from Brussels who sometimes publishes under the name "Niegel". His decades of experience have led him back to film-based photography, especially large format film shots.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN: Marc favors a sleek black-and white design that sets off his crisp B&W photography. Each of his portfolio pages uses the same single column design, so each photo gets its own space to stand out. When you click on his sidebar Nav menu, his biography and profile picture appears on a slide out, so you have a chance to read about his experience and the types of photography he excels at.

PRO TIP: If you have a large body of work like Marc, it can be helpful to divide your photography examples onto  separate photography portfolio pages. That way, visitors to your photography portfolio website can view the samples most relevant to their project without getting visually overwhelmed.

4. Yaeesh Collins

Yaeesh Collins graduated with a BA in Film & Media from the University of Cape Town. He specializes in sports and street photography and is also an excellent videographer.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN: Yaeesh uses a varying frame grid design for his photos, so each photo is the size and shape that highlights it best. It also creates a graphic design that allows photos to be offset from each other to really pop individually. Yaeesh displays his videography on a separate portfolio page. Yaeesh is active on social media, so he keeps his social media buttons front and center by including them in his Nav menu.

PRO TIP: Yaeesh includes a large number of photography samples on his photography portfolio landing page, which is designed so that you can continue to scroll down to see more samples. This is a great option if you have a large number of high-quality photographs that you want to organize and publish.

5. Marissa Mahoney

Marissa Mahoney is a journalist, photographer and digital designer from Orlando. Her photojournalism accompanies many of her stories and helps the news come to life.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN: Marissa designs her portfolio around her photojournalism, with her landing page displaying articles that feature her photos and a separate photography portfolio page for her hard news features. She uses a black-and-white design and font theme that are reminiscent of newsprint to aesthetically align with her photography samples.

PRO TIP: Marissa includes a pdf of her CV, so site visitors can get in-depth information about her professional experience. This is a great option if you are using your photography portfolio to search for a job, internship, or acceptance into an educational program.

6. Charla Reid

Charla Reid works in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as a photographer, graphic designer, and marketing art director. She has over 20 years of experience as a photographer and does everything from corporate photography to marketing shots.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN: Charla's landing page is divided into case studies of each of the types of photography and design she does. From samples of her work on Adobe Photoshop to executive portraiture, each work sample highlights her skills and allows potential clients to view a variety of her work. She's also included a short About Me section on her Home page as well as a linked CV, so clients can get to know more about her work experience.

PRO TIP: Charla makes the most of a one-page photography portfolio by including only a few high-quality photography and design samples for each type of work she specializes in. Choosing your best, most representative photography samples keeps your portfolio focused and your clients impressed.

7. Britney Pease

Britney Pease is a photojournalist who focuses on still life photography and documentary photography. She has an M.A. in Photography from Leeds University and often combines narrative text with her projects.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN: Britney uses photojournalism and artistic still lifes to make social commentary through her documentary projects. To highlight these, she's divided up her portfolio into a Gallery page of photography samples and a Project page with more details on her documentary projects. Individual projects can be clicked, which opens a pdf for the project in a separate tab and lets site visitors view pdfs of multiple projects at a time.

PRO TIP: Britney uses her portfolio as an opportunity to explain her work in more depth. If you're a more narrative photographer, having one or more examples of a connected body of work can give site visitors a broader context for your photographic style.

8. Nicolas Gaviria

Nicolas Gaviria is a Peruvian architect and photographer currently based in Berlin. He specializes in studio portraits, street and architecture photography, and wedding photography.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN: Nicolas's Home page creates immediate visual interest with a multi-pane photo carousel of samples of his stunning portraiture. Immediately below, a second carousel displays his landscape work. He further divides his photography portfolio pages by work time and includes only his most stunning work. His About Me is located on his Contact page, which is another excellent option for placement.

PRO TIP: Nicolas keeps the focus on his photos by avoiding text and keeping it visual. Having text located only on one page, like an About Me or Contact page, keeps site visitors attentive to your work without distraction.

9. Colleene Kabaria

Colleene Kabaria is a student photographer who works out of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Her work spans everything from New York Fashion Week to garden portraits.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN: Colleene's portfolio page features three large photo menu buttons so that you can choose to see photography samples of her runway, portrait, or editorial work. Each button is linked to a separate portfolio page with numerous samples. This means she can include a larger number of photography samples from each genre and keep her portfolio design clean.

PRO TIP: Colleene includes an email button alongside her social media button in her Nav menu. It's important to make it easy for people to reach out to you by including an email address and/or a contact form or phone number.

10. Shannon Sexton

Shannon Sexton is the founder of Sexton Media out of Melbourne. She offers bespoke solutions for photography, writing and editing for companies across Australia.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN: Shannon does a great job of making sure her brand identity is front and center by using brand fonts, colors, and voice. Her landing page immediately explains who she is and what Sexton Media provides clients while creating impact with an impressive profile portrait. She divides her writing from her photography on different pages of her portfolio. Her Photography page takes advantage of a stunningly designed header with a montage of her portraits. She includes services provided, and large photo buttons take site visitors to separate gallery pages for each service.

PRO TIP: Shannon includes an onsite store to sell her fine art prints, so her portfolio not only displays her work but sells it. This is an excellent way to turn your portfolio into a source of income as you continue to expand your audience.

How to Design Your Own Photography Portfolio

Now that you've had a chance to view a variety of photography portfolio examples, you're ready to start designing your own.

The first step in how to build a photography portfolio is to choose a web builder that is easy to use and customize. Journo Portfolio is a web building site that is specifically for portfolios, with a simple drop-and-drag editor that lets you get your site up and running in hours.

Once you've decided on a web builder, you'll want to explore themes and templates, font and color schemes, and customization options. When you've decided on your aesthetic, it's time to upload your best photography samples, add an About Me section, and make sure your contact form is working.

You're all set! Now you can share your portfolio with the world and get your work in front of your audience.