The Art of the Personal Project: Doug McGoldrick

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:  Doug McGoldrick

Dinner with Mom-mom

Like many people who make a living in photography most of my work involves carefully planned images, that are being made to achieve a set goal for a client. Given my choice though I love to just go into a situation and capture what’s happening in front of me and telling a story, sometimes long stories and sometimes short stories. For this project it was a short story spending a single day with my Grandmother (Mom-mom) as she prepared a large family meal for our family, in these images she is in her early 90’s and it is one of the last large family meals she would prepare for my family before she passed. Mom-mom had quite a life, she spent her childhood in an orphanage in Philadelphia after her mother passed away shortly after arriving in the United states from Italy. After leaving the orphanage in her teens with her older sister she worked as a hair stylist and then sold tickets on the boardwalk in Wildwood New Jersey until her late 80’s, never slowing down while raising her two children. Being Italian cooking was constant in her life, bringing food from the old country to new generations of family. This meal fed 4 generations of family, passing that food culture forward. Mom-mom cooked simple meals of red sauce and pasta with few ingredients but mixed to perfection. I’m incredibly grateful I was able to capture this day when I could and only wish I had more time to spend with Mom-mo. All the recipes for the dinner I have posted on my website, dougphoto.com

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.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.