Author: Suzanne Sease

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:  Aaron Dougherty

Valeri Crenshaw is a friend who has camels.  She keeps them on her family’s farm near Manhattan, Kansas where her father lives and raises cattle.

I can only scratch the very surface of her story, so I’ll stick to what very little I know.

She and her family in different combinations have traveled to some of the most exotic locations imaginable.  I am aware of Bhutan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, India, Pakistan, Egypt — and France.  She’s been to these places with her husband Kyle, and/or Father Roy, and/or on her own.  She’s attended and/or organized camel fairs and camel excursions all over the world.

She currently holds the title Secretary General for the North American Camel Ranch Owners Association and was named Vice President of the American Camel Sports Association by her host at an event in Pakistan, where she represented at a televised event before a crowd of thousands.

I love to travel, though the most exotic I can claim is 24 hours on the ground in Tangier.  So, when the opportunity to document her first annual Midwest Camel Fair came up (co-presented with Doug Baum of Texas), I didn’t hesitate.  I was able to vicariously enjoy a tiny fraction of her adventure without having to get any visas or inoculations.  My goal was simply to do the event visual justice and capture at least some of the spirit of the day.

 

 

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Anna Rathkopf /The Rathkopfs

Artist Statement for HER2: The Diagnosed, The Caregiver and Their Son

HER2: The Diagnosed, The Caregiver and Their Son, began as my attempt to regain control after being diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer at 37. When my husband Jordan and I—both photographers—couldn’t find images that captured the complexity of our experience, we turned the camera on ourselves. This became our way to process what was happening and to better understand the things we struggled to express in words. The result is HER2: The Diagnosed, The Caregiver and Their Son: a deeply personal visual chronicle of how serious illness reshaped our family’s life.

This project transcends the typical “warrior” narrative often associated with illness. It captures the raw, unfiltered reality—the fear, exhaustion, and grief, but also the love, connection, and moments of joy that sustained us. For me, the camera became a tool to process my changing body, the loss of my fertility, and the emotional upheaval, allowing me to reclaim my story on my own terms.

HER2: The Diagnosed, The Caregiver and Their Son also reveals how illness affected Jordan and our young son, Jesse. Jordan’s images portray the weight of caregiving while being a father, and how Jesse, in his own way, coped with the upheaval around him. This project isn’t just about cancer—it’s about the impact of illness on families, relationships, and identity.

Through HER2: The Diagnosed, The Caregiver and Their Son, and our dual photographic perspectives in conversation and collaboration with each other, we aim to show how art is a means of self-preservation, helping us navigate and make sense of profound life changes. We hope to spark deeper conversations about the emotional, physical, and financial toll of illness, offering a more honest, layered perspective on what it truly means to live through—and alongside—serious illness. By sharing our journey, we seek to foster empathy and understanding, contributing to a more inclusive dialogue about illness and its far-reaching effects, while exploring tangible solutions to support patients and caregivers.

Purchase the Her2 book

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Robin O’Neill

“Kevin is a friend, local alpine climber and ASMG guide. One day, he shares with me his eight-year-old’s passionate climbing pursuits. “She is too light to belay anyone and is working on problems beyond most adults.” So, he is her climbing partner. “Daddy-day care” is what he calls it, with a grin from ear to ear. He absolutely adores telling me about his time with Marion on the rock, so I think, why not ask him if I can photograph that experience? And I do.”

“I approach this project with no script other than to capture their relationship through climbing and to share that story as it unfolds organically. My camera serves as a tool that allows me to forge an intimate connection with people and landscapes that would otherwise be out of reach, giving deeper purpose to my curiosity.”

Whether commercial, editorial, or personal work, my images naturally gravitate to form a narrative. I like to create thoughtful, honest, spontaneous, and inspired images that tell a story. I love working collaboratively, and I am most fulfilled when both sides of the lens are equally happy with the images we make.

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Winnie Au

Seen on CNN:

It can be quite the sad sight: the family pet, recovering from surgery, having to wear that awkward cone on their neck to keep them from licking at their stitches.

They look miserable. They look silly.

But Winnie Au is hoping to flip the script with her new photo book, Shame. “In these portraits, dogs are wearing fashionable collars that they can be proud of.

“I wanted to take that post-surgery humiliation — that saddest moment for every pet — and twist it into something beautiful and majestic,” Au says in her book. “I wanted to take the shame out of the cone.”

To see more of this project, click here

To purchase her book “Cone of Shame here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:   Vlad Sokhin   ( featured in NPR Picture Show)

 

Their lands are oceans apart but are linked by rising, warming seas of climate change

Editor’s note: As the 2021 U.N. Climate Change Summit convenes, NPR’s Picture Show is taking a look at work by artists and visual journalists that highlight climate change.

 

Charles Maynes

Vlad Sokhin’s interest in climate change came from his own global upbringing.

Born in Russia, and having spent formative years in Portugal, Sokhin made a career as a documentary photographer capturing health and human rights issues in Europe, Africa and Asia. Yet it was a 2013 assignment to cover deforestation in Papua New Guinea that convinced him to train his lens on humanity’s impact on the planet.

“I saw how the environment was changing because of illegal logging,” Sokhin tells NPR. “But the big picture wasn’t there. I thought, ‘What if I extend a little bit?'”

Eight years and thousands of miles later, the result is Warm Waters, (Schilt Publishing, 2021) an exploration of climate change traveling across 18 countries and off-the-map territories seen by seldom few.

Within his native Russia, Sokhin, 40, spends time with communities on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Across the Barents Sea, he photographs native Inupiat and Yupik settlements in Alaska. Both are confronting the same coastal erosion and melting permafrost — the once-frozen soil layer now fast disappearing throughout the Arctic region.

Mostly, Sokhin explores Oceania — the South Pacific — where rising tides have inundated communities in places like the Aleutian Islands, Micronesia, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Tuvalu. Some may recover, others may soon be lost to the sea forever. Yet Sokhin’s lens is constantly drawn to locals trying to adapt the best they can.

As a book, Warm Waters is no straightforward travel narrative. Sokhin eschews the traditional format of photos with captions and location information, and instead opts for what he calls “tonal narratives” — unexpected visual connections across cultures, countries, and, of course, bodies of water.

“You can see what’s happening there and it doesn’t matter which island it is,” says Sokhin. “This is affecting everyone.”

At its core, Warm Waters is one photographer’s attempt to show how global warming is connecting seemingly disparate lives across vast distances.

What Sokhin finds is cause for extreme worry, of course; but also, moments of resilience and wonder.

To see more of this project, click here.

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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.

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:  Stephen Wilkes

Coney Island, Day to Night™, 2011

Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY is home to one of the most iconic boardwalks and amusement parks in the United States. I photographed from a crane 40 ft. above the boardwalk, for 18 hours. It was a beautiful summer day in July, and the beach was filled with people. My favorite part of creating this photograph was simply the people-watching. Coney Island has an incredible mix of people; and as a street photographer, floating above that boardwalk is the best seat in the house.

 

To see more of this on going project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Josh Huskin

Dear Finley,

I created Dad Jokes in preparation for becoming your Dad. For 9 months I invited friends and       strangers alike to sit while I told them my best Dad Jokes while capturing their reactions.                                        My purpose is to juxtapose  “just got your nose’ against the gravitas of fatherhood. I now feel fully prepared to embarrass you in front of your friends, and collect many sighs and eyerolls

Love,

Dad

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Lars Schneider

So, the Happy Campers project … It really is a very personal project as I started it purely for fun, for documentation purposes and a to get a look into the world of other campers and their vehicles and ideas and thoughts about camping and a life on the road. It was in 2012 that I spent two months living and traveling out of a 1971 VW van with my wife Katrin and our just 8 months old son in the US Southwest (they are included in the series too ;-)) and whenever we pulled up to a campground, we looked around for interesting vehicles and people. In the evenings or mornings, I grabbed my Hasselblad H4D-50, and we took a casual walk as a family around the campsite. With our old van in the back and a baby on the arm it never was hard to start a conversation, and, in the end, I often took a few portraits of the owners and their rides. I naturally felt most drawn to other vintage motorhomes and the supersize ones that were just the opposite of how we were travelling.

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Clay Cook

Today there are over 30,000 commercial sex workers in Ajmer, India. They originate from marginalized segments of Indian society and are forced into the commercial sex trade due to poverty, gender inequality, lack of education, and limited skills. These women dream of escaping abusive relationships, moving their families to safety, feeding their children, investing in education, and giving their families a chance at a better life.

‘Stitched In Strength’ is a personal project that dives deep into the lives of women who have been championed through difficulty, supported through craft, and given a chance at a better life with the help of the award-winning non-profit, Anchal. My goal is not only to portray the impact of Anchal but to also shine light on the dedicated artisan women who give it life.

Artisans make 25%-100% more than they did before working with Anchal. This salary increase has led to 70% of the Artisans becoming the primary breadwinners of the family, the purchasing of first homes, and healthcare for themselves and their families. For 65% of artisans, Anchal is their first legal, recorded career. Anchal employs artisans but also conducts monthly workshops to teach skills such as entrepreneurship, leadership, women’s health, self-defense, and stress management that go beyond Anchal and promote further opportunities in their lives.

This project is an invitation for viewers to reflect on the power of social entrepreneurship, where creativity and compassion converge to create a lasting impact. The vision of Anchal extends far beyond a quilt. It symbolizes a thread of opportunity and community that can mend and enrich the lives of women worldwide.

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Eric Melzer

 

I created ‘The Play Project’ to celebrate neighborhood play and good health during the isolation of the pandemic.  I challenged myself to build a photographic project around outdoor fun within a five-mile radius of where I live. That took me to the Peavey Park basketball courts in Minneapolis about a mile from my house.

I’ve shared these images with the players in both print and digital forms. The work earned a grant that I used to create a custom, unbound, tabloid-sized, poster book so players could share and display large images of themselves using inexpensive slip frames. I also created custom basketball cards and fine art prints for each player.

Images from this body of work have earned ten photography awards to date in Graphis, Communication Arts, IPA, American Photographer IA/IP and ASMP. The tabloid also just won a Gold award in the Graphis Design Competition.

I like pro sports and competitions like the Olympics because they give us heroes to look up to – but they are exclusive of most of us. The inclusive nature of neighborhood pick-up sports means everyone gets the ball, has fun, gets exercise, and builds friendships.

Photography really can build communities and help people feel seen. A quote from one of the players, Kenneth Walton, sums it up:

“Honestly when seeing the photos I felt a huge sense of accomplishment, community and pride. A lot of times when we play together outsiders look in with negative perceptions of us guys at the park. The pictures shine a positive light on the family we’ve built around Play!”

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Ryan Dearth

For a few years now, I’ve been very interested in the concept of human identity, specifically how people perceive and express themselves. The way we dress is often a reflection of how we feel about ourselves and who we want to be. Cosplayers take this to the extreme, literally transforming into comic book characters, superheroes, and video game stars as a way of exploring different facets of their identities.

I began photographing cosplayers during Comic Con in Denver as an exploration of the metamorphosis from ordinary people to fantasy, while still remaining human.

This is an ongoing project, and if you’ll be in costume for Denver’s Comic Con in 2025, please reach out. I’d love to photograph you.

 

 

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Beth Galton

Memory of Absence

So much of who we are is passed from generation to generation—our genes, our behaviors—molded by our family. In 2017, my mother and father—who had not lived together for 50 years—died within three days of each other. I discovered many artifacts from my life of which I had no memory.

In this series, I combined botanicals with objects and photographs that I found, in order to convey a sense of memory and loss. The organic and volatile botanicals serve as a reminder of the ever-changing nature of memory and emotions—an unstable and profoundly unreliable process.

My creative process is to compose and photograph botanicals with the collected objects I have gathered from my mother’s home. I then print out the image and create yet another still life by layering more objects with the print and re-photograph it. This creates a further sense of the complex and layered emotions found within family dynamics.

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Cade Martin

The Chelsea.

An eclectic and electric icon in a city brimming with icons.

Written. Wolfe. Twain.

Shouted. Vicious. Pop.

Whispered. Keroac. Cohen.

Sang. Dylan. Hendrix.

Too alive with tall tales, deep secrets and notable guests not to photograph.

New York City. Even in the most seen city, there is adventure in chasing a what-might-be-around-the next-corner feeling. My favorite work is often something that catches me in the moment, scratching the itch of the unexpected in an obscure corner of an unknown town, or on the west Side of Manhattan. I wasn’t planning on it, but the Chelsea was spinning tales that I had to listen to.

– Cade Martin

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Heather Perry

Kids in the Hood began as a selfish pursuit of a photograph a day to push me as a creative. I came to it when my son was about 7, and he ran with a band of characters from our neighborhood. As a homeowner, I’d first come to know them as agents of entropy: they’d let the hose run too long, fight and squabble, pilfer from our recycling bin.

Over nearly 10 years of photographing them, the slow magic of parental love seeped beyond the bounds of my kid and onto the kids I got to know through my time in their world. Silently, I cheered, feared, hoped and worried about each of them. When the test of time and circumstance made the project harder – tweens going separate ways, teens inside on phones, Covid isolating us all – the nature of the work changed. Perhaps the biggest hurdle to my ultimate goal for the project was the fact that my son no longer wanted to be photographed on the regular. I struggled with this as a photographer, but ultimately my motherhood won, and I set him free (mostly). I set them all free (mostly). In the end, it was the natural arc of youth that dictated when it was time to stop. What didn’t stop is my love and admiration for each of them.

Dylan’s optimism is legendary, and it just might restore his imagination for what his life can be. I hope that Seamus will remember that joy is as important as the rest of the countless emotions in his head. Perhaps the most captivating kid in this project, Casper has always been utterly authentic and fluid. It seems they are flowing still. My son, Finn, has always seemed just a little concerned. As he’s matured, he’s colored it to look more like apathy or ambivalence to keep the world at bay. I will keep urging him, with and without camera, to trust the world, and most importantly, himself in it.

They’ve all (mostly) graduated from high school now and have chosen very different paths from one another. Almost none of them talk to each other anymore. But I do think and hope that they will forever remember where they came from and the days they spent together.

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Kremer Johnson

In our latest series, “Personal Space,” we delve into the evolving landscape of the modern workplace, inspired by a New York Times article on large companies encouraging employees to personalize their office spaces to draw them back post-pandemic. This project emerged from the profound shifts we’ve all experienced in our professional lives, highlighting the blend of home and office environments.

To bring this vision to life, we purchased a standard office cubicle, transforming it into five distinct conceptual spaces, each reflecting a unique story of personal identity and professional adaptation. Each image in this series serves as a narrative, portraying how employees reclaim their workspaces with creativity, making them not just places of productivity but extensions of their homes and personalities.

Our goal with “Personal Space” is to capture the essence of this transitional period, where the line between work and home blurs, and the cubicle becomes a canvas for personal storytelling. Through these images, we explore themes of resilience, adaptability, and the human need for connection and expression in the face of change.

This series invites viewers to reflect on their own work environments and the subtle yet profound ways in which they personalize their spaces. It underscores the importance of creating workplaces that foster not only productivity but also well-being and personal fulfillment. “Personal Space” is a tribute to the enduring human spirit and its capacity to adapt and thrive, even in the most unexpected circumstances.

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  CJ Foeckler

I’ve been creating my Christmas card series since 2007.

It originally started as a joke to take a goofy portrait of myself in my single days to give to friends. It’s now turned into a serious project every holiday season that friends and family eagerly await the release of. We like to ‘out-do’ ourselves in terms of goofiness, quirkiness, or cleverness every year. It’s a goal of ours to create something that looks so real in terms of concept and execution, that if it were found on the street, someone would think that it was a real ad, band photo, or album art.

In the early years it was just me, then my cat Opie came along, followed by my wife, and now our two girls. It used to be easy to shoot something goofy, but now it’s become a fun challenge to create a realistic concept that works with all of our family members. Sometimes the concept is a loose idea that is worked out the day that we shoot and release it, and other times it’s figured out months in advance. This year’s concept is already worked out, we just need to purchase some clothing and props and shoot nearer the holiday season.

Last year’s card was the most complete to me in terms of realism and concept. We created a band, a song, album art, and merch. I recorded a simple song with my daughters, shot and designed the album art, and even had a merch site to sell t-shirts, mugs, and prints for family and friends.

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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: Brian Molyneaux

I endeavor to realize and document beauty every day in the people that surround me wherever I am in this life journey. I am endlessly intrigued by people especially those that appear different than me and I rejoice in experiencing our commonalities. I celebrate unity, diversity, inclusion and love for everyone from every land and all cultures.

I believe that at its core portraiture is a somewhat intrusive act. It is my duty as the photographer to minimize that intrusion and to connect as honestly, thoughtfully and respectfully as I possibly can.

My latest personal project This Is What Jewish Looks Like started over a year ago through a desire of mine to represent people with truth and dignity. In this first phase of my project, I photographed 60 Jewish people of diverse backgrounds, race, and origins over the course of 3 days. This imagery was compiled in collaboration with Reboot and released as a Public Service Announcement on MTV, Paramount, Showtime, and their affiliated channels in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month.

As with all of my work I am dedicated to finding that beauty that we all share as human beings floating around on this planet and I treasure our connections. I am only scratching the surface with where I am going next with this project of capturing diversity and inclusion in the Jewish faith. I welcome you all to follow along.

 

To see more of this project, click here

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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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

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:  Josh Scott

Waterway is an ongoing project I started in 2009 just after buying a house on the Detroit River.

This series of images is focused on foggy mornings when things are quiet, calm, and surreal.

It’s a magical time to be on the river as threads of mist permeate from the water into the cool air leaving it a horizonless abyss, disorienting, removing any visual reference to direction.

It’s a time to explore, watch, and wonder as the breeze rolls blankets of fog into various tunnels of sight and the sun’s rays of light fight relentlessly to burn through the thick moist air.

Sometimes without warning the fog will just vanish leaving this mysterious place behind, and you’re left waiting for the next time the fog will play with your mind.

 

To see more of this project, click here

Instagram

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 advertising and in-house corporate industry for decades.  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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram