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: Art Streiber
According to the website farmworkerfamily.org, between 1/3 and 1/2 of all farmworkers in America reside in California, which means that there are roughly 500,000 – 800,000 farmworkers laboring in the state’s fields and orchards and approximately 1/3 of them are women.
Mily Treviño-Sauceda and Mónica Ramírez had both spent years organizing and representing farmworkers before they joined forces in 2012 as co-founders of the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (The National Farmworkers Women’s Alliance). It was the first national organization to represent the country’s 700,000 women farmworkers, uniting one of the most vulnerable groups in the American workforce.
The intention of my group portrait was to have the dozen women farmworkers that agreed to be photographed stand in for their (approximate) 200,000 counterparts. I wanted to create a sense of infinity with just a few subjects.
After the group portrait was finished my crew and I set up a simple portrait station on the back of the equipment van in order to honor each woman individually.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture reports that California produces 1/3 of the country’s vegetables and 2/3 of the country’s fruits and nuts, which means that these women are responsible for providing Americans with lettuce, apricots, grapes, apples, almonds, broccoli and avocados to name just seven of the 400 agricultural commodities produced in the state.
Keeping these women safe and healthy is the mission of the Alianze and while the organization is addressing numerous issues from domestic violence to workplace environmental concerns and sexual harassment, Treviño-Sauceda says, “There’s still a lot of work out there we need to do.”
If you can donate to this organization and help these amazing women, please do as they are the ones keeping fruit and vegetables in the markets: https://www.alianzanacionaldecampesinas.org
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.
