The Art of the Personal Project: Tom Hussey

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Tom Hussey

Last year my producer and I decided we were going to travel once a month to shoot personal work.  It was an ambitious goal and we only had to completely cancel one trip. Thankfully we were able to reschedule other trips around jobs and wound up completing 11 trips for the year.  In January, we decided to go to the World’s Largest Ice Fishing Tournament — The ICE FISHING EXTRAVAGANZE at hole in the Day Bay, on Gull Lake just north of Brainerd, Minnesota.

We hired a local assistant who was also an ice fisherman, which helped a great deal since I am from Dallas, Texas, and had never stood on a frozen lake.  Driving a two-ton pickup truck out on to a completely frozen lake with 20,000 holes drilled into the ice (visualize Swiss cheese) was a nerve-racking experience for me. Once we reached the “City on Ice” I was amazed at the over 18,000 fishermen on the ice, ready to go in the -10 degree weather — they actually told me it was a warm year!

Photographing the fishermen and the ice fishing lifestyle lead me to truly appreciate the sport and the camaraderie of the participants. The ICE FISHING EXTRAVAGANZA is a charitable event that awards over $150,000.00 in prizes to the contestants while raising over $1,000,000.00 to the area and to local charities.  If you ever have the chance, I say GO FISH!

To see more of this project, click here.

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a new Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.