Is a tearsheet the entire page my photos appear in or is it just the photo with the byline and cutline underneath? I am applying to CPS and want to make sure I send the correct stuff in. Thanks!
I would recommend sending in the entire page. That way whoever receives it can see it was published in a magazine which would normally have page numbers and some sort of ID across the bottom.
If you just cut out the image and cutline, it could have come from the chamber of commerce magazine or National Geographic.
It's a fairly literal term - you tear the sheet out of the publication and put it in your portfolio. Thus a tearsheet. I've seen folks also put the magazine's cover on a facing page to give some context if your images were part of a feature, though then you're in the position of explaining that the cover isn't yours, the other page is.
Tearsheet comes from the newspaper world. It is when you tear an entire page from a newspaper for reviewing. It would normally include the images and text contained on two printing plates. Front and back sides of sheet.
