The Art of the Personal Project: Eric Espino

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 Espino

Artist Statement: “La Bodega” – The lost soul of a neighborhood

Around NYC we have noticed more and more Hispanic “bodega” markets disappearing, one of the major aspects making up the diversity within the 5 boroughs. Every bodega is a major key in Hispanic or urban area neighborhoods catering to the needs of the poor and working class. It is a major staple within the Hispanic culture that is, unfortunately, being driven out due to the “New” New York gentrification conditions and standards we have experienced over the last 10-15 years or so.

Our homes and neighborhoods are changing and are no longer affordable. Bodegas have always been the place to go to for the last minute ingredients to your home-cooked meal- to be the place where you always receive a warm welcome- to always having a place to be around the people you’re most connected to; no matter the color, race or religion, but most of all a place we all knew as “La Bodega”.

This was my home. We are the face of a born and raised NYC culture that will never be forgotten. – La Bodega

 

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 @SuzanneSeaseInstagram

 

The Art of the Personal Project: Mike Smolowe

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:  Mike Smolowe

My name is Mike Smolowe and I am a commercial lifestyle photographer in Los Angeles.  I have always been drawn to animals and even went to school to be a vet in a past life.  I am a people photographer by trade, but after having my eyes opened to the incredible number of dogs being euthanized in shelters daily, I knew I had to get out of my comfort zone and do what I could as a photographer to help.

A little over a year ago I began a project photographing homeless dogs in shelters and rescues agencies across Los Angeles and posting them on an Instagram account along with their name, breed, and personality traits( @rescuesoflosangeles).   Approximately 3,287 dogs are euthanized in the United States each day due to minimal space in shelters and a lack of outward-facing advocacy for adoptable pets to the public.  The goal of Rescues of Los Angeles is to get these unfortunate pups a better chance at being seen and adopted.

Sometimes it’s hard to see a dog’s true personality through the cage in a loud, scary shelter environment.  By photographing each adoptable dog intimately, I want to help give them a chance to show off who they really are.  A goofy smile, droopy ear or sparkle in the eye of a happy dog may not be so obvious behind the bars of a cage surrounded by other barking dogs. This project started as a way to help show off the good side of those without a voice of their own.  Working with local shelters, fosters, and advocates,  we photograph as many pooches as possible and hope to get the word(and photos) out there that shelter pets are just as loving, entertaining, and beautiful as animals from anywhere else.

Please follow us!

@rescuesoflosangeles

www.rescuesoflosangeles.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 @SuzanneSeaseInstagram

 

The Art of the Personal Project: Agnes Lopez

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:  Agnes Lopez

Over the past year I worked with filmmaker Eric Torres, directing a documentary about Filipino food and the Filipino chefs in Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville has the largest Filipino population in the Southeast, yet Filipino foods are generally absent from the area’s culinary scene.

As a food photographer and a second-generation Filipino-American, I want the next generations of Filipino-Americans — and all food lovers! — to see and taste the rich and delicious culinary culture of the Philippines.

Our documentary, #MORETHANLUMPIA: JAX Filipino Chefs, is in the final stages of filming and will premiere in October at a special screening at the Museum of Science and History in Jacksonville, Florida.

There is a global Filipino Food Movement taking place right now, and believe it is time for the city of Jacksonville to join it. We want people to see that our food is more than just lumpia and pancit, and that serious Filipino culinary talent is already here in some of the most revered kitchens in the region.

The JAX Filipino Chefs documentary is part of a larger campaign to highlight the incredibly skilled and accomplished Filipino chefs of Northeast Florida who are looking to share flavors and dishes from their backgrounds and imaginations, inspired by their culture, through events, pop-up dinners, social media, and community outreach.

You can see the teaser trailer for the documentary and read about the chefs at jaxfilipinochefs.com and @jaxfilipinochefs on Instagram.

James Victorino, Executive Pastry Chef, One Ocean Resort

Jojo Hernandez, Executive Sous Chef, The Florida Yacht Club

Leni Rose Magsino, Pastry Chef, Valley Smoke Restaurant

Melanie Cuartelon, Sous Chef, Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa

Rick Laughlin, Chef de Cuisine, Salt at The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island

Wesley Nogueira, Executive Chef, Khloe’s Kitchen

To see more of this project, click here.

To attend one of their events, 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 @SuzanneSeaseInstagram

 

The Art of the Personal Project: Those who got noticed in the press

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:  Personal Projects that get noticed the press and in broadcast.  I often hear from photographers they done know what to shoot for a personal project.  I think you have to shoot from the heart and make it unique and special to you.  When I am looking for personal projects, I like to post ones that are a personal vision, something I have not seen before.  I am always thrilled when I see someone’s personal vision published in the press or broadcasted on television.  I remember when Grace Chon’s work was posted on a Today Show segment, Bob Carey’s lovely tutu project was on a national news segment, Jaime C. Moore was a feature on CBS Saturday morning or trending right now on Instagram @notengaged.  Some of these folks are professional photographers and several are not.  What they have in common is they created a project and put it out there and the internet Gods listened.

http://www.bobcarey.com/#/portfolio/portfolio/ballerina

https://www.gracechon.com/+projects/zoey-and-jasper/1

https://conornickerson.com/en/projects/childhood

https://www.instagram.com/notengaged

Rafael Mantesso & Jimmy Choo, the dog

Sioin Queenie Liaoand Queenie Liao and Wengenn in Wonderland

Jaime C. Moore  and her daughter as Influential Women through History

Marc Bushelle credits above for his project of his daughter dressed as History Makers  and more refined as  The Heroines Project

Theron Humphrey  This Wild Idea and featured in Time Magazine

 

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 @SuzanneSeaseInstagram

 

The Art of the Personal Project: Adam Ewing

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:  Adam Ewing

Early in my career, I realized the importance of shooting personal images to coincide with the work I was actually assigned to do. I started shooting as an editorial photographer after a long tenure of assisting editorial and commercial photographers. When I would get to a location I was assigned to shoot, I would quickly scan the area as I scouted for the job and take notice of things that interested me.

I made a habit of taking mental notes during jobs and then for a few minutes at the end of an assignment I would shoot something for myself in a style that wasn’t what I was professionally hired to do. After a while, I built a large enough library that my commercial clients took notice. One day I got a call from Anya Mills, an art buyer at the Martin Agency, an advertising agency I was doing a lot work for at the time. One of the art directors at the Martin Agency, Ty Harper, had seen some of this personal work on my site and wanted me to shoot a project for the paint company, Benjamin Moore. It was a dream assignment.

They flew me to different cities around the United States to find things I wanted to shoot, and to shoot them in my signature style. They sent me with an in-house producer, Ross Skinner, and together we spent a few weeks on the road, looking for buildings and townscapes that would fall into what the client wanted for an image library. I would see something I liked, and Ross would seek out the permission and get the proper releases so Benjamin Moore could use the images commercially.

I normally shoot portraits, but every so often someone sees this personal work and it leads to inquiries about licensing or to a new assignment to shoot in that same style.

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 @SuzanneSeaseInstagram

 

The Art of the Personal Project: Fernando Decillis

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:   Fernando Decillis

BandoKillers (ongoing project)

“It’s easy to go down rabbit holes on Instagram. I just start looking around and get caught up in a look or an aesthetic or subject. A couple of years ago, I found a hashtag #bandokillers— the images were mostly abandoned buildings, institutions— from all over the world. I have always been a collector of small items and furniture that people discarded. I once made a whole series on strange odds and ends I found at the flea market in Bogotá, Colombia.

After finding the bandokillers hashtag, I started following a few of the people who were going out and shooting in abandoned spaces in Atlanta. There were a couple of guys who were around that were in this world of #bikelife, lowriders, #bandokilles— and this intense, beautiful grit. I reached out and tagged along to car shows and to a couple bandos (abandoned buildings) with them and we just became friends. My #bandokillers project is more about portraits of creative people in these spaces. All of their work has this running theme of making beauty out of the things society discards. And trust me…we discard a lot.

My story is influenced by the subjects of the portraits, and by my friends who gave me a window to this wild world. The work, which I am continually adding to, can be found here: BandoKillers

Instagram accounts/hashtags to follow

@wire_atl

@_sig_

#bandokillers

#bikelife

 

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 @SuzanneSeaseInstagram

The Art of the Personal Project

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:  Kris Davidson

At best, photographs offer a thin slice of truth; a photographic portrait of a person is a fleeting depiction of someone within the relentless rush of time, revealing a mere sliver of who they are. My new art series, tentatively titled American Memory Portraits, considers the curious process of Americanization, a memory-laden journey that unfolds over a lifetime. The collaborative series is comprised of large mixed media/collage portraits of first and second generation Americans with personal images from the subject’s life collaged in, usually into what they are wearing (Klimt’s paintings are an inspiration point for this series). As a whole, the idea is to create a more nuanced illustration of the varied immigrant experience, allowing for deeper glimpses into how cultures collide and cross-pollinate over time in America.

Pictured here, second from left: In-progress piece (45″ x 36″ print) of Miguel. I hired Miguel to be my driver for a story about the Valle de Guadalupe wine region in Mexico (tearsheets below). As he drove me to my locations, his story came out in pieces —  he had been deported from the United States last year, after having lived there for nearly 30 years. He is photographed here on the Tijuana beach with his American-born son a few yards away from where the border fence disappears into the ocean. Miguel’s best friend drives the child down every month from Los Angeles. Miguel only had a few blurry snapshots to share with me — the collage will be comprised of a plaid pattern on his shirt featuring repeated a repeated image of his son and the American mother.

I am actively looking for project participants — if you are a first or second generation American (or if you have a lead) I would love to hear from you!  kris@krisdavidson.com

 

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 @SuzanneSeaseInstagram

The Art of the Personal Project: Paul Ernest

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:  Paul Ernst

Claimed as the 21st century Norman Rockwell, Paul Ernest’s photographic work has been received as a soulful interpretation of timelessness in today’s evolving informational and technological culture . Using the camera and his appreciation for American Realism, Paul has developed a style he calls Mise En Scene Realism. His focus on composition and lighting are primarily drawn from painters such as Wyeth, Rockwell and Johnson but with an influence from his former career as a Creative Director and designer. “We are a people of storytelling , parables and fables. Our perception of the aesthetics in life are absorbed and interpreted in a way that is no different from any style or technique that have ever been in existence. We learn from stories and the adoption of them into our way of thinking and living.”

Since 2011 Paul’s work has earned him awards from WPPI and PPA, including Diamond Photographer of the Year in 2012 and 2015 and earning his Craftsman and Master Degree. Paul’s work has been accepted in galleries such as Craighead Green and premiere arts festival throughout the state of Texas. His commissioned work hangs in restaurants, hotels and private collections including the lobby of his alma mater where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts. He also has developed his style into a line of home interior products sold nationally.

Paul’s passion for education and continued growth in himself and others is evident in his teaching and mentoring which he does in his home state as well as across the U.S. He lives just outside of Dallas, Texas with his wife and children.

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.

The Art of the Personal Project: Kip Dawkins

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:  Kip Dawkins

VACANT

In my everyday work as a commercial photographer I photograph luxury interior products, interiors and lifestyle. Everything, the setting, the light, the styling, is very tightly controlled. We have people combing fringe on pillows. The moments in my personal projects tend to be forgotten places, negative space. They have been allowed to decay or weather through neglect, poverty or the forces of landscape.

I happen upon them by chance. My only control is my ability to see and capture the fleeting moment when light and space and structure come together. I create an atmospheric moment that suggests chaotic forces at work. I got my original start photographing punk rock bands. I liked the chaos and the lack of control, trying to find the happy accident of the moment that comes together.

I’m drawn to these moments because I do the exact opposite every day of the week, but they’re all taken with the technical knowledge that I’ve gotten in all my years of photographing interiors and products. Technically they come out as highly refined as I can get them. It’s the highest level of processing I can do. The same amount of time goes into them as for the luxury projects, but there is no staging, no styling team and no tons of equipment. I have to wait for the clouds to part or the rain to come down on some castoff place.

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.  And on Instagram

The Art of the Personal Project: Angie Smith

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:  Angie Smith

Stronger Shines the Light Inside is an ongoing photography project that tells the personal stories of refugees in the United States. In 2015, Los Angeles-based photographer Angie Smith began documenting refugees rebuilding their lives in Boise, Idaho. She’s since photographed communities in Salt Lake City, Albany, New York, and Los Angeles. Stronger Shines the Light Inside helps Americans understand the complexities, struggles, and personal triumphs that refugees experience in their everyday lives.

Of the 65 million displaced people worldwide, only 1% will eventually be resettled in a host country. And of that 1%, each has endured a long and grueling screening process, often spanning years. This project presents refugees as individuals, each with a unique story, grappling with questions of self-identity, reconciliation with the past, and sifting through the emotions of adjusting to an entirely new culture.

Every story is different, but each one speaks of hope, of refusal to give up. Many point to a serendipitous moment, a right person at the right time—someone who saved their life while fleeing, who offered a ride to a supermarket on their first day in America, maybe a friendly face who helped them read a bus schedule, or someone who simply smiled and said hello. All speak of their desire to integrate and contribute to the community, and many express gratitude for those who have helped them to do so.

In May 2018, Smith began an artist residency with Wieden+Kennedy where she spent three weeks photographing refugees and immigrants in the Portland area and the organizations that support them. Through these photographs, films, and interview excerpts, this exhibition aims to amplify the marginalized voices of immigrants, migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers and highlight the many contributions they make to our communities.

To see more of this project, click here.

Some film stories for the project: http://www.strongershinesthelightinside.com/films/

It is important to talk about this terrible incident that happened in Boise last week… Since this is the city where everything started…
and the print sale I am doing in response to it- all of the proceeds will go to support the IRC fund for the families. http://www.strongershinesthelightinside.com/shop/

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: https://www.instagram.com/suzanne.sease/

The Art of the Personal Project: Doug Ross

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 new revised 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 Ross (originally posted in Nov. 2017 but again for the 4th of July)

Artist Statement:

“Coney Island, a black and white retrospective” is my photographic journey of the past ten years shooting at Coney Island. My photographs, of Coney Island, Brooklyn NY, represent my vision of an ever-changing canvas of people and experiences by the water’s edge, on the boardwalk and the streets that surround. They bring the viewer into a place that is intimate, gritty and untouched by society. The people are who they are and have no excuses or facades. The rich black and white tones strip away the screaming colors and even sounds of the seashore park and its patrons and leave the viewer to just be fixated by the subjects alone. I am pleased to present this compilation of some of my favorite images from the area I so love.

 

To see more of this project, click here.

To purchase the book, 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. And on Instagram suzanne.sease

The Art of the Personal Project: William Coupon

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:  William Coupon

THE APPEARANCE OF PORTRAIT IMAGES:

When you are taking portraits the main thing to remember is you are capturing the veneer, the mask.   However, within that context you are also making a declaration, if you are fortunate, of a certain insight into the person.   Faces are like Jungian models ~ they are symbols only.  It is entirely up to the viewer to digest and make their own decisions about who these people really are.  It’s mostly point of reference.

When you photograph celebrities, the viewer has pre-conceived notions of the person.  They are recognizable.  We feel we know them already.  In fact, the celebrity is so used to being photographed that they oftentimes fall into a more familiar pose, and they have a tendency to appear more like “forced naturalism.”

With the many people ~ the non-celebrity ~ that I have sought out for portraits, they are much more raw, much more spontaneous in spirit.  And much more mysterious.   They are mostly unfamiliar with the process, as compared to a celebrity, who would tend to stereotype their own appearance.   It’s as if they, too, like the viewers, have already recognized their own preferential veneer, because it corresponds with their own self-image.

A common person does not have that burden of trying to “be someone.”

I have been lucky to have photographed a fair assortment of noted personalities as well as the unknown, the unfamiliar, since 1978 at Studio 54.  I then went to the Mudd Club and then on to making many cover shoots for the New York Times, Smithsonian, Esquire, The Washington Post, CBS Records, Apple, HP, and the Robin Hood Foundation.  In the end, I like them both, but shooting a celebrity for a Rolling Stone cover is very different from being in the villages of Italy or Brazil, or Panama, or Mexico.  Their masks are more raw, yet sometimes even more fearful, as their unfamiliarity with that type of environment makes them a bit unsettled, and because so, far less hidden.

Aboriginal Man

From a series on The Traditional Dutch, from Scheveningen, Holland, reminiscent of the early Dutch paintings of Rembrandt and Holbein
Haitian Mother & Child Photographed in Jamcel, Haiti

Kayapo Chief

Beauty Contestant photographed near Mountain Home, Arkansas

To see more of this project, click here.

To Pre-order this book, click (Amazon) here

Or here (Barnes & Noble)

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.  Or Instagram @suzanne.sease.

 

The Art of the Personal Project: Vincent Dixon

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:  Vincent Dixon

Pushkar Studios

Six years ago I went to the town of Pushkar with my family during their annual Camel festival, held every November at the time of the Kartic Purnima full moon. Villagers, traders and farmers come from all over Rajasthan to trade thousands of camels and horse. The town is also one of the five Dhrams or pilgrimage sites held in high esteem by Hindus. They come to pray at the most sacred of the scant four temples to Brahma in all of India (a long story why such an important God has such few temples, suffice to say he upset his wife!). This was one of our first stops in India and I was completely blown away by the exoticism of it all. It is a photographer’s dream, which in itself can become a problem. You are quickly exhausted by the intensity of the colors, the crowds, the endless possibilities. Strange as it might seem, because there is so much to process, your brain can lock down. I think that it took me a year to absorb all I had seen.

Returning a year later, I needed to try something different. The year prior I travelled light with just small cameras. The second time, I brought bigger cameras and lights. There were a number of reasons for this. First, I am fascinated by how the camera itself affects the photo we take. How, for example, bigger cameras can slow us down and perhaps force us to take a more studied photo. The Rajasthani people are incredibly handsome, the detail of their clothes and jewelry are incredible, they have an eye for color and form that few possess. I wanted my portraits to reflect this. On a photographic level I needed the precision and care that these tools bring to try to capture the subject.

Inspired by Irving Penn’s, “World In A Small Room,” I set up a small studio at the camel fair. On Monday when I got to Pushkar, I found a large tent and rented it for two days. It wasn’t ideal, it had green netting on the sides and the roof was full of holes. I had some cotton cloth died black overnight. It took most of Tuesday morning to get things set up.

I shot with both a medium format back and a Nikon. The medium format is 80 million pixels and really only works at 100 iso which makes for long exposures. It slows you down which can be a good thing. Here are some of the photos that I took with the medium format Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday.

To see more of this project, click here.  And of the festival more 

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

 

The Art of the Personal Project: Kris Davidson

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:  Kris Davidson

As an immigrant, Kris Davidson’s personal work considers the American experience. She’s recently embarked on a new project that will touch ever state in the union. The American Imagination: Myths, Tall Tales and Legends in the United States is a writing and photography project that seeks to contextualize stories from each of the American states as an entry point to looking at modern American culture. Stories — in particular, myths, tall tales and legends that incorporate elements of the fantastical and surreal — all contain fragments of truth, holding the history, fears, hopes and aspirations of a people. The fantastical elements of a culturally held story allows for heady hyperbole in celebrating triumphs, while also providing a buffering analgesic effect in making sense of dark tragedies.

Kris projects that it will take 8 years to produce the work; she’ll be rolling out the first few states on her website (www.krisdavidson.com) in a couple of months, but for now you can keep up with the progress on her Instagram (@hellokrisdavidson)

Researchers at the UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico adjust a malfunctioning display. The New Mexico chapter of The American Imagination considers the tale of the Roswell alien crash in 1947 as well as the state’s enduring nuclear legacy.

Watery reflections undulate in opaque waters that feed into the Weeki Watchee River in Weeki Watchee, Florida . The Florida chapter of The American Imagination takes a look at the whimsical origin story of Ponce de Leon and his question for the Fountain of Youth in this sundrenched state surrounded and defined by water.

Girls at their first communion at the Santa Monica Church in north Dallas. This image is a part of the Texas chapter of The American Imagination, which considers the JFK assassination and related stories and conspiracy theories.

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.

The Art of the Personal Project: Todd Weaver

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:  Todd Weaver

I counted audibly…one,two, three, clicking the shutter each time I got to five. I was standing on a mark I placed on the floor of my studio that I could not move from.  While my subjects could move freely, in and out of the frame  indicated by tape marks on the floor.  I did this 36 times continuously, equaling 3 minutes time.

This limitation is the foundation of my new book 36.

The idea came to me a couple of years ago after I bought an Olympus Half-frame camera made in the 60’s.  I became enamored with the black line in between each frame. I imagined the grid of 36 photos not unlike a contact sheet but different.

My subjects: 36 artists that are a part of my artistic community in Los Angeles. People I admire for their art, their humanity and their passion. Many of whom I have known for a decade.

The first person I shot for the book was my friend Devendra Banhart. Our mutual friend Mel Shimkovitz was over at Dev’s house during our shoot  and when I described what I was doing, she interrupted me by saying “yeah, yeah, I get it. You’re doing this whole John Cage thing.”  Using fate and giving up control to define the outcome.  Little did I know the outcome would be capturing my community, something I had been wanting to do for a long time.

The people in the book didn’t know anything about the limitation until they came to my studio. They only knew that it would be shot in black and white against a white wall.

I kept this project a secret for 2 years and I’m thrilled to finally share it.

Andru Sisson

Ariana Papademotroupolis

Devendra Banhart

Elena Stonaker

Eric Johnson

Jasmine Albuquerque

Mark Maggiori

Ryan Heffington

Zak Schlagel

To see more of this project, click here.

To purchase 36, 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.

The Art of the Personal Project: Clay Cook

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

While stationed in Tanzania in 2015, the crew and myself met a man named Adrian McCrae who had been casually enjoying a Kilimanjaro Beer at the Mount Meru Hotel bar. Adrian owned a mining company in northern Australia and did a lot of humanitarian work throughout Tanzania, but his passion was paragliding. We soon came to discover, Adrian led an expedition entitled Wings Of Kilimanjaro, in which a group of brave paragliding pilots trek up Mount Kilimanjaro and sail off the top. He and his expedition are the only group allowed by Tanzanian law to make the jump, as they are one of the leading charitable organizations in Tanzania. Top paragliding pilots from all over the world raise thousands to have this adventure of a lifetime.

When I learned I would have the opportunity to scale the highest free-standing mountain in the world, Mount Kilimanjaro, I was on my death-bed at 311 pounds and 50% body fat. One year later, I set foot on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Then, along with an expedition of 16 professional pilots, attempted to paraglide off the summit. I had lost nearly 130 pounds and helped raise nearly half a million dollars for clean water and education in Tanzania, Africa. Although our project Wings of Kilimanjaro pulled off an amazing feat and set a Guinness World Record, I believe our greatest accomplishment was not sailing off a volcano at 19,341 feet. Our triumph was raising nearly a half-million dollars for the progress of education and clean water in Tanzania. Kilimanjaro had set a beacon, sparked a fire and cleared a black cloud. It was a gift, that solidified my wellness journey and provided a new sense of strength. I guess you could say it saved my life.

 

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.

 

The Art of the Personal Project: Gustav Schmiege

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:  Gustav Schmiege

Fire Roasted in Williamstown, MA

 

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 at suzanne.sease

The Art of the Personal Project: Tom Hussey

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:  Tom Hussey

Last year my producer and I decided we were going to travel once a month to shoot personal work.  It was an ambitious goal and we only had to completely cancel one trip. Thankfully we were able to reschedule other trips around jobs and wound up completing 11 trips for the year.  In January, we decided to go to the World’s Largest Ice Fishing Tournament — The ICE FISHING EXTRAVAGANZE at hole in the Day Bay, on Gull Lake just north of Brainerd, Minnesota.

We hired a local assistant who was also an ice fisherman, which helped a great deal since I am from Dallas, Texas, and had never stood on a frozen lake.  Driving a two-ton pickup truck out on to a completely frozen lake with 20,000 holes drilled into the ice (visualize Swiss cheese) was a nerve-racking experience for me. Once we reached the “City on Ice” I was amazed at the over 18,000 fishermen on the ice, ready to go in the -10 degree weather — they actually told me it was a warm year!

Photographing the fishermen and the ice fishing lifestyle lead me to truly appreciate the sport and the camaraderie of the participants. The ICE FISHING EXTRAVAGANZA is a charitable event that awards over $150,000.00 in prizes to the contestants while raising over $1,000,000.00 to the area and to local charities.  If you ever have the chance, I say GO FISH!

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.