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: Andy Batt
I’m very much a non-traditional landscape photographer. I don’t carefully scout or go anywhere with the idea of making “that shot”. I just wander with my camera, and occasionally get to do it in amazing places.
I spend a lot of time just looking when I’m wandering. It’s a search for a reaction in whatever’s in front of me— usually nebulous and poorly defined, but it’s what I’ve come to think of as getting an emotional reaction from a rocks.
My landscapes feel like an exploration of myself as much as they are about the land. I’m looking for resonance with shapes, light, and form. There’s an acknowledgement that each moment is fleeting and different—not better or worse. It’s about opening myself up and being receptive to that moment and taking the photo without judgment or criticism.
Landscape work gives me the freedom to simply be in the moment. It has a sort of artistic healing effect on myself—it bleeds over into my commercial photography, giving me much needed perspective.
There’s something calming and inspiring about being reminded that the world is a much bigger and older place than I often remember. I feel humbled being down in a canyon that’s been carved out over millennia or standing on a pumice field that’s been shaped by ancient volcanos and the constant scouring of wind. Creating art in these places connects me to them—it gives me a touchstone I can return to over and over.
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.
