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: Christian Tisdale
Everyone in our industry talks about how photographers need to shoot personal work. We’ve all heard it, and I, like so many busy photographers, always pushed that stuff aside. Why would I shoot unpaid work when I could be shooting paid projects? Then Makers came along and changed all of that.
Makers is a series of images that focuses on the human experience of making – it’s about the patina and scars on experienced tools and experienced hands, finely tuned workshops perfected over thousands of hours of iteration, and individuals that dedicate their lives to creating. Makersis an answer to the numbness of consumerism based in the mass-produced goods that we’ve become so accustomed to.
I’ve always had a burning need to create things, anything – I’m obsessed with the act of making and the attitude it takes to create something from nothing, to create a tiny piece of order from the chaos. I love the spirit of creation, regardless of what the end result is. Which is where Makers was born.
I’ve been actively shooting Makers for nearly 2 years now, and it has completely changed my career. The project has grown from a couple of creative sessions with artisans in my small town, to a significant body of work that has opened doors to the biggest paid projects I’ve ever worked on. It has also shown me this warm and inspiring community of wildly interesting Makers in the Vancouver area and beyond. I’m so thankful for the ways that this project has affected my work and my life.
I hope you enjoy these images as much as I’ve enjoyed making them.
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 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.