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:  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 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.

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

The Voiceless

When I was first offered the opportunity to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia I was really unaware of those problems and issues that plagued the city and the country as a whole. Due to famine and communist civil war, nearly 60% of Ethiopia, Africa is under the age of 18 and of that demographic nearly 100,000 children are completely homeless and suffer from tremendous injustice. Poverty, addiction, prostitution and disease. There is an extreme lack of leadership, parents and grandparents. It is a country of youth.

The NGO Youth Impact has blazed a trail for dozens of successful business men, architects, carpenters and artists. I knew our project would involve children who have struggled. Children who have stories. I wanted to tell their story the only way I know how, through imagery. I decided to develop a portrait series of both children right off the streets as well as adults that have grown through the Impact program. I wanted to bring the aesthetic of my portrait work blended with a journalistic mood. It was a humbling experience to photograph this community that has so much to say, but no voice. Hopefully, this series provides that voice that they so yearn to have. This is The Voiceless.

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 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

Artist Statement

Agnes Lopez – www.agneslopezphoto.com

With each portrait in The Faces to Remember Project I want to record my subject’s story indelibly. So far I have met and photographed Holocaust survivors, the first African-American schoolteacher at a historically all-white school in my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, and Filipino veterans of World War II, who shed blood for the United States and then had to fight another 75 years to even be recognized for their service and sacrifices.

My process for creating these portraits centers on eliminating ornamentation. I want to take a simple photograph and yet have a strong impact on a viewer through my subject’s expression. This challenges me to connect with my subjects on a personal level.

It started with the portrait of a client’s grandmother, Ella Rogozinski, who survived the horrors of the Holocaust in Budapest, the Auschwitz concentration camp, and the death march to Bergen-Belsen. I expanded the scope of the project to include veterans in South Carolina, and eventually traveled across the country to San Francisco to a gathering of Filipino World War II veterans.

As a commonwealth of the United States before and during the war, Filipinos were legally American nationals, and the 260,000 Filipinos who fought for the U.S. were promised all the benefits afforded to those serving in the armed forces of the United States. In 1946, Congress voted to pass the Rescission Act, stripping Filipino soldiers of the veteran benefits they were promised. It was only in 2009 that the U.S. authorized the release of a small, one-time lump-sum payment to eligible World War II Filipino veterans. In 2016, the Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act was signed into law to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Filipino veterans of World War II, in recognition of their service.

My hope is that the people I photograph will see their participation in this project as an opportunity to receive a definitive portrait of themselves in the twilight of their life, so it can be an heirloom for their families, and that viewers of the portraits will be inspired to learn more about the events in history that each person endured.

Ella Rogozinski, 91
Holocaust survivor, Auschwitz

Patricio Ganio, 97
World War II veteran and Bataan Death March survivor

Bevelyn Demps, 103
First African-American teacher at Justina Road Elementary School, Jacksonville

Ponciano Mauricio, 100
World War II veteran and Bataan Death March survivor

Morris Bendit, 77
Holocaust survivor and Israeli Navy veteran

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 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:  Tony Novak-Clifford

Artist’s Statement On the Book:

I first traveled to the Island of Bali, one of the over 14,000 islands making up the Republic of Indonesia and the Indonesian Archipelago, back in the mid-1980’s. At that time, my only goal was to surf the fabled waves of Bali’s coastline and enjoy a relatively cheap holiday in an exotic destination with my wife. It was our first trip to Asia and we knew very little about the country, the island or its culture. Little did I know at the time that this would be the beginning of a love affair that continues to this day.

While the waves and other amenities related to the tourism scene were fantastic, it was difficult not to notice a graceful and dignified people engaged in daily activity devoted to prayer and ritual in order the please and appease an enormous pantheon of spirits, gods and demons with the intent of maintaining a spiritual balance to not only their world, but also to ours.

It wasn’t more than a couple of days before I was ditching the surfboard and grabbing the camera and making inquiries. Before long, I was pursuing ritual activities and temple festivals (Bali has over 20,000 temples, each one holding a “birthday festival every 210 days) all over the island, visiting remote villages and temples well of the beaten tourist trail in pursuit of documenting the lives and spiritual activities of this generous and hospitable people.

What I found along the way was a culture rich in art; though their language has no word for “art”, highly refined forms of music & dance, painters, sculptors and wood-carver producing amazing, elegant and colorful rituals of devotion, joyful rites surrounding death, ancient mysticism and a generosity and hospitality I had never before experienced. Everywhere I ventured I was welcomed, fed, protected. As a photographer, the culture displayed enough pomp and circumstance to make a pope envious. Finding subject matter at which to aim my lenses were never-ending.

Thirty years later the love affair continues and I have been making nearly annual visits to the island to the island, sometimes for a month or more at a time, ever since that first visit. Through friendships developed over the years, I have been afforded access to sites and places few westerners will ever venture.

On the prodding of friends and family, I have finally set out on this book project, collecting and editing nearly 30 years of images down to a collection that I hope brings a sense of dignity and appreciation of this remarkable culture, along with  curiosity to the viewer.  With the assistance of designer Zenobia Lakwadalla and some editing by a dear friend and amazing journalist Tad Bartimus, the book was completed just over two weeks ago, self-published & released to the public. So far, the response has been very encouraging. The goal now is to use this version of the book to pitch to a publisher/distributor in Singapore with a large distribution network throughout Asia.

To see more of this project, click here.

The hands of a “Gambuh” dancer. Gambuh is perhaps the oldest surviving form of Balinese performing arts, dating back to the 15th century. From a very young age, aspiring dancers begin stretching the tendons of their fingers with various exercises in order to perform the acrobatic hand movements required of this dance form.

A Bull sarcophagus (Lembu) is engulfed in flames during the Cremation of a member of the Royal family of the village of Batubulan. The “Bull” represents that deceased is of Brahmin (high) caste, the color black indicated the deceased is male.

A young boy stands before an offering laden temple altar during festivities at Pura Tama Sari, a remote mountain temple in Tabanan Regency

In the remote mountain lake village of Gubung, high above Bali’s norther coast, a woman sets out baskets of fighting cocks to air in the early morning sun.

A simple candid street portrait made roadside in the village of Sukawati.

Bali: Portraits of Life, Culture & Ritual

 Published: April 2018

Author: Tony Novak-Clifford

Available Online at Blurb.com and direct from the author. (Amazon.com coming soon.)

Hard Cover, Linen Bound with Full Cover Dust Jacket with Flaps.

124 pages, Over 120 color and B&W Photographs.

Contact: tony@tonynovak-clifford.com

Website: http://www.tonynovak-clifford.com

Tony Novak-Clifford is a commercial/editorial photographer based in Maui, Hawaii, producing award-winning advertising campaigns and editorial features for international, regional & local brands & publications.

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 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:  Amy Neunsinger

I adore taking photos of flora because of the intimacy, the ease and the beauty. In my everyday job I work with many people, hectic schedules and tight parameters so it’s invaluable when I can be quiet and intimate with my subject. The simple things can be the hardest to capture but in the end can have the biggest reward.

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 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: Ian Spanier 

RIGHT NEXT DOOR

There’s a world-record holder living just three houses away. In the home adjacent to yours resides a guy who worked as a set carpenter for The Sopranos but now just relaxes in blissful suburban anonymity.

Two blocks over is the home of the air-traffic controller who guided the “Miracle on the Hudson” jetliner gently down to its landing in the river.

People with stories like these are all over, in every neighborhood across this vast country. Do we know about them, though? Do we really have any idea who our neighbors are? Right Next Door will cross that threshold to show that amazing human beings with extraordinary lives aren’t just found on television or online.

They’re all around us — and many live far closer than we think.

Please note that I write the interviews with MUCH help of editor Brian Dawson.

Dane Elliott Lewis, Civil War Reenactor, Aerospace Engineer.

Growing up in a small town in NY with just a handful of African-Americans Lewis chose the opposite path and attended Morehouse College- a historically black all-male school in Atlanta. There he learned of Civil War reenactment. A lover of history he jumped in with both feet, continuing his side passion on the occasional weekends.

Chris Paparo and Red-Tailed Hawk Emmy, Falconer, Naturalist, Conservationist

Some might find it odd to have a full-grown bird of prey in your backyard — but Paparo and his wife, who both work at their local aquarium, regard it as a natural outgrowth of their passion for animals. Emmy isn’t just a freeloader, though — when Paparo isn’t writing or photographing articles about the environment, he’s often hunting with her.

Jon Hayman, Television Comedy Writer

Ever wonder why you never see Bubbleboy in the infamous Trivial Pursuit “Moops” episode of Seinfeld? Well after the producer couldn’t cast an appropriate teen that was enough of a “foulmouthed bastard” to play the part- he asked writer Hayman to pull it off, admittedly, more of a behind-the-scenes guy, his 38 years-old arm took to the stage for the memorable TV moment. He’s also written and appeared on Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm amongst his other projects.

– Lena Marquise “Mistress Lady Wednesday,” Dominatrix

Not one to be hidden behind the curtain, Marquise is not a stereotypical dominatrix. With an ability to speak about her life like a TED talk, Marquise is a steadfast cheerleader for sexual liberation and the unabashed embrace all of one’s quirks and desires.

George Lois, Famed Creative Director.

An original Manhattan adman, Lois created many of the most memorable advertisements and publication designs of the last 50 years: Esquire magazine’s glory days in the 1960s, Volkswagen, ESPN, Ed Koch’s mayoral campaigns and many, many more. He’s also the inspiration for Don Draper- minus the cigarettes, booze and philandering.

To see more of this project, click here.

In the press, check this out

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 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: Jason Schmidt

Jason Schmidt

May 13^, 2012

Brooklyn, New York

At this point, I have photographed more than five-hundred artists, starting from 1997, carting my Linhof 4×5 and Nikon cameras through boroughs, up what might amount to several hundred flights of stairs, and occasionally to far-flung destinations around the globe to take a portrait of an artist in her or his (and sometimes their) studio or work environment. Much of the earlier artist portraits were collected in Artists, which came out in 2007. This book is a continuation of that project: the artists range from young to old, emerging to career peaking, world-famous to as-of-yet little known. It includes those exploring traditional mediums to those down-right confounding the entire premise of the art world as it exists today. The pages are rife with internal connections—some of the artists are friends, partners, studio mates, mentors. A few came to me by way of a suggestion from a fellow artist, and, perhaps, some are even competitors or enemies. But, for me, the 168 artists here represent something of an improvisatory art community, not so much a “group show” in industry speak but a barrage of very different scenarios where very different kinds of work is being made under some kind of constraint. That constraint might be time, money, a deadline, a market hungry for more, or simply the fact that a photographer demanded anywhere from a half an hour to four hours out of their busy schedules..

Each experience with an artist is singular—the resultant photograph is often a mixture of collaboration, on-the-spot inventiveness, my attempt to capture the artist and the environment in a concise, material way, and the restrictions that the studio or location provides. What I don’t do is editorialize. I try not to impose my conception of what an artist should be doing, and, since my job is to document, I don’t create scenarios or forge clever, telltale demonstrations. (You will never hear me say, “pretend you’re painting!”) I do often speak with an artist in advance and discuss a possible concept or conceit, and I’m always impressed by the number of subjects who actively want to get out of their comfort zones and participate in the creative process., Just as often, however, I let my first impression right from the studio door guide me. The first view is often the best solution. Generally speaking, I like to frame a picture around the studio space or around an in-progress artwork and then to decide where to place the artist. The artist might recede into the space and become another object in the tableau or he or she might become the focus of the photo. I don’t see these photographs as portraits first and environments second—the two are not mutually exclusive. Mostly I am interested in understanding an artist in the context of the work. I try to capture how the art was being made or conceived—the circumstances and the conditions, which are often insanely messy or shockingly organized and usually somewhere in between. Unlike the final installation shot, the money shot as it were, the photographs in this book record a very specific moment in time—when the photographer went on a visit to see an artist. The artworks in these photographs looked different the day before I arrived and many of them surely changed dramatically in the days after I left. These are the instants when everything is up in the air and the art, the artist, the photograph, and even this photographer wait and wonder how it will all turn out.

To see more of this project, click here.

To purchase his most recent book click here

(Artist I is sold out)

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.

Jason Schmidt is a photographer and director who specializes in portraits of artists and cultural figures, as well as architecture and interiors. A New York native, he received a Bachelors of Arts in art history from Columbia University in 1992.

Schmidt has photographed over 600 contemporary fine artists since 2000. His first book, Artists, was published in 2007 and Artists II (Steidl), his second book on the subject, was published in the fall of 2015. This body of work has been exhibited at Deitch Projects, New York and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. His work is included in the Marguiles Collection in Miami, where 135 artist portraits are currently on view.

New York Times art critic Karen Rosenberg observes that Schmidt’s photographs “transcend Pollock-paints-a-picture clichés; each photograph has its own peculiar aesthetic, from Paul McCarthy’s being caught like a serial killer in a boat spattered with fake blood, to prankster Maurizio Cattelan’s installing his infamous sculpture of a fallen pope.”

Schmidt shoots regularly for magazines including Architectural Digest, New York Magazine, The New York Times T Magazine, Vogue, W and Wallpaper. In addition to his print work, Schmidt has been directing short films on both art and architecture for several years.

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: Gustav Schmiege

I fell in love with Marfa at first sight, in 1993, but it took me many years to get back to far west Texas. My ongoing project now takes me there often. It’s an eclectic oasis of fifth generation ranchers going about their day-to-day, artist and writers from all over the world and travelers in search of a decompression spot that is almost off the grid.  The combination of its high desert light and minimalistic beauty keeps drawing me back to continue my work. 

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 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: Michael Greenberg

After losing their husbands, the widows of India are often ostracized by their communities and their families. Many move to the city of Vrindavan, the birthplace of lord Krishna, to finish out their lives in service of Krishna. Until very recently widows were left out of Holi celebrations. Organized by Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak, the widows now celebrate Holi in the historic Gopinath Temple in Vrindavan. It was an honor to join them this year.

To see more of this project, click here.

Or for his Instagram, look 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 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: Peden+ Munk

To see more of this project, click here.

Motion portion of this personal 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 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: Rob Gregory

When looking at the landscape of BMX photography, I noticed some trends regarding wardrobe and location. Most riders seemed to be wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and were shot in street or skate park environments. As I set out to make Church with Matt Wilhelm, I wanted to take on the challenge of breaking these conventional molds. I started with the wardrobe and decided that a suit would be very different from anything I had seen. But in order for that to make sense, we needed a location where you would actually wear a suit, which is why I chose a church. Using an abandoned church seemed to fit the spirit of BMX and also allowed us to add one more final flourish to the series: smoke bombs. By strapping these to his bike and placing them in the environment, we were able to achieve some very unique and beautiful effects that were challenging at times, but worth the extra effort.

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 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: Jason Lindsey

I Still Remain: Fighting Cancer Twice

“I Still Remain” is a film and photo story that inspects and explores the inner workings, insights and inspirations of a man driven and informed by two fights with cancer. Written by Braulio Fonseca, directed by Jason Lindsey, and edited by Sai Selvarajan, “I Still Remain,” blends poetic introspection with cinematic observation to reveal a moving portrait of how serious illness carries intense emotional impact, and the transformative power in healing the mind, body and spirit.

Lindsey was inspired to help Fonseca tell his story: how the psychological element was vital in living more fully, even while threatened by the ravages of illness. The director was determined to bring Fonseca’s evocative, lyrical language to the screen. As he explains, “Braulio’s writing mines an emotional journey we do not often see in the fight with cancer. We wanted to craft the message with an aesthetic that would translate the depths of his healing process to hopefully reach those looking for hope and restoration. ”Honoring the story with immersive and rhythmic visuals, Lindsey captures both intimate and expansive moments that reveal Fonseca’s resurgence. From the purifying blank page of icy blue water to the worn decay of photographed graffiti walls, and the calloused skin of time’s toll.

An admirer of Sai Selvarajan’s body of work, Lindsey approached the editor to shape a story that would blend voice and visuals, poetry and purpose. For Selvarajan, the challenge was met with passionate determination to uncover the universal and the personal, in a message aimed to inspire and connect.

“We wanted to capture the interior space of a cancer survivor and create a unique marriage of art and why,” comments Selvarajan. “Cancer, unfortunately, is something that most people have a personal experience with directly or indirectly. I was honored to be able to collaborate with Jason on this film, and I hope people are encouraged by Braulio’s story.”

Cancer Survivor: Braulio Fonseca

Director/Concept: Jason Lindsey

Writer: Braulio Fonseca

Voice Over: Braulio Fonseca

Producer: Talia Watkins

Director of Photography: Jason Lindsey and Myles Beeson

Editorial Company: Lucky Post

EP: Jessica Berry

Editor: Sai Selvarajan:

Assistant Editor: Alex Histerkamp

Audio Mixer: Scottie Richardson

Composer: Curtis Heat

Color Correction: Company 3 Chicago

Colorist: Tyler Roth

To see more of this project, click here.

Also a link to the film can be seen 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 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: Patrick Molnar

Pat Molnar’s Artist Statement: The Art of the Personal Project February 2018

We found Village Garage in East Atlanta when we used it as a location for an ad shoot back in November. I had driven by it dozens of times and never given it a second thought. But it’s a real garage — not like the shiny clean chain garages you see popping up in Walmart parking lots — this is authentic. It reminds me of the garages that I worked at during high school. It’s very old school. They’ve got a wood burning stove, everybody smokes, and there are bikini calendars on the walls. There’s absolutely nothing false about it. These guys truly love cars. They specialize in old classics — there are old muscle cars are all over the lot. Some belong to customers, some to the mechanics. They even had my 1st car, same year and everything, in the parking lot — a 1967 Dodge Coronet.

They were kind enough to let me come out and spend some time photographing them and their surroundings. For me, it really just reminded me of being 17 years old again.

To see more of this project and other journal entries, 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 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: Guzman

We move through the world visually. Most days, we carry a camera capturing a living image, a talisman, instinctively collecting bits and pieces of what we see. A landscape, a portrait or a still life, our visual diary helps us make sense of the world. Hopefully, these varied facets of our imagery, thread together so that the viewer can enjoy the images visually and perhaps elucidate their own landscape.

Our interest in attending the recent demonstrations and documenting the women and men that have taken to the street, is to capture their anger, their desires and their demands, in the hope that our images can help articulate, visually, the spirit of these events.

“I always had a decent sense of outrage”

– Bella Abzug

To see more of this project, click here.

Guzman is now being represented by four eleven.agency

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 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: Stephen Wilkes

Transcend the Passage of Time in ‘Day to Night: In the Field with Stephen Wilkes,’ Opening at National Geographic Museum Feb. 13
Exhibition features captivating images of spectacular bird migrations across the globe taken by iconic photographer Stephen Wilkes

WASHINGTON ( Jan. 16 , 201 7 )— For 130 years, National Geographic has been using the power of photography to tell meaningful stories, inspire people to take action and transport audiences to unseen places. A new exhibition opening at the National Geographic Museum on Feb. 13, ‘Day to Night: In the Field with Stephen Wilkes,’ takes that experience even further by showcasing stunning images by iconic photographer Stephen Wilkes that capture the passage of time. The exhibition will be on display at the National Geographic Museum through April 30, 2018.

Wilkes, a New York–based photographer who is widely recognized for his fine art and commercial work, creates visually compelling scenes expertly crafted from more than 1,500 images taken from a fixed vantage point over the course of fifteen to thirty hours, from sunrise to sunset. Wilkes spent much of 2017 in the field on assignment documenting bird migration routes for the March 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine.

In ‘Day to Night,’ visitors can marvel at Wilkes’ stunning compositions of landscapes paired with human or animal narratives and appreciate the movement and energy of locations such as Serengeti National Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City as they transition from day to night. The exhibition gives visitors behind-the-scenes insight into all that’s involved in Wilkes’ shoots, from the research put into scouting locations; to determining how time will move through the image, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally; to the time spent conducting the actual shoot; and finally to the extensive editing process, during which Wilkes selects the best moments captured from thousands of images to seamlessly combine them into the stunning finished product.

Time and memory, the essence of why we photograph.
Photography has historically been defined as a single moment, captured in time.
Our memories are defined by these moments, illuminating our consciousness of time as we age.

Years ago, I imagined changing time within a single photograph; compressing the best moments of a day and night into a single image. Photographic technology has now evolved to allow my dreams to now become reality.

Most impressively, the exhibition features four expansive and powerful mega-prints of captivating bird migrations, measuring roughly 7 feet tall and 12 feet wide, that reflect the theme of conservation. Behind the scenes of each massive image, visitors will learn about the species, the location where Wilkes photographed them and what makes them integral to the ecosystem. Visitors to the exhibition will have an intimate look at these species:

•  Black-browed albatrosses in the Falkland Islands, sitting on their nests, warming and protecting their chicks, while their partners soar above them hunting for prey;
•  Northern gannets on Bass Rock, off the coast of Scotland, that flocked to the island during breeding season only to migrate as far as West Africa in the winter;
•  Sandhill cranes on Nebraska’s Platte River, huge birds that spend their days fattening up on waste grain left in the fields to prepare for their migration to sub-Arctic and Arctic nesting grounds;
•  and Lesser flamingos at Lake Bogoria, Kenya, that thrive in the extreme environment of high-altitude soda lakes, feeding on algal blooms that are toxic to many other creatures. 
Behind the prints, visitors can also read fascinating stories detailing the lengths to which Wilkes went to get the perfect shot, from surviving dive-bomb attacks from birds above to being trapped in a bird blind for 36 hours. The mega-print gallery in the exhibition focuses on migratory species and their habitats that are under threat due to climate change and human impact, such as commercial fishing and menacing tourists. Wilkes’ photography can be used as an instrument for change, inspiring solutions to help protect species and habitats that are at risk. His impressive field work documenting these beautiful species was supported by a storytelling grant from the National Geographic Society. 
“We have marvelled at Stephen’s iconic Day to Night images for a long time and wondered how his unique imaging technique might be used to illustrate the power of an ecosystem or the magic and mysteries of bird migrations,” said National Geographic Museum Director Kathryn Keane. “This exhibition reveals the results of his year in the field—and they are simply stunning.”

The exhibition ties in to National Geographic’s year-long initiative to highlight bird species and their migration patterns, aptly titled the Year of the Bird . The Year of the Bird is a partnership between National Geographic, the Audubon Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BirdLife International and over 100 other organizations. Through 12 months of storytelling, science research and conservation efforts, the Year of the Bird will examine how our changing environment is driving dramatic losses among bird species around the globe and highlight what we can do to help protect them. Wilkes’ stunning images documenting the four ancient bird migration routes across the globe can be found in the March 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine.

The National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., is open every day (except Thanksgiving and Christmas) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Public Events:

Wilkes will give a behind-the-scenes look at his work during a talk on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. and the exhibition will remain open until 7:15 p.m. on this date. Tickets are $25. For more information, please see here. In a special Student Matinee, students in grades 5-8 will join Wilkes on his most recent National Geographic assignments photographing the elegant and mysterious patterns of bird migrations across landscapes in Kenya, Scotland, the Falkland Islands, and the Platte River in Nebraska. For more information on National Geographic’s student matinees, please see here .

About Stephen Wilkes

Photographer STEPHEN WILKES’s widely recognized work ranges from capturing the long-abandoned medical wards on Ellis Island and the impacts of Hurricane Katrina to shooting advertising campaigns for the world’s leading corporations. His photographs are included in public and private collections globally, and his editorial work has appeared in National Geographic , The New York Times Magazine , Vanity Fair , and many others. His highly acclaimed first monograph, Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom , was published in 2006, and his second, featuring his iconic Day to Night series, will be published by Taschen in 2018. Stephen has shot advertising campaigns for Netflix, Capital One, the New Yorker , Rolex, and many others. His extensive awards and honors include the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography, Photographer of the Year from Adweek magazine, and the Fine Art Photographer of the Year Lucie Award.

About the National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society is a leading nonprofit that invests in bold people and transformative ideas in the fields of exploration, scientific research, storytelling and education. Through our grants and programs, we aspire to create a community of change, advancing key insights about our planet and probing some of the most pressing scientific questions of our time while ensuring that the next generation is armed with geographic knowledge and global understanding. Our goal is measurable impact: furthering exploration and educating people around the world to inspire solutions for the greater good. For more information, visit www.nationalgeographic.org.

To see more of this project, click here.  and 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 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:  Jennifer Serena 

JEN SERENA, PHOTOGRAPHER: Many years ago, on a trip to Ecuador, all of my gear was stolen – including the cards with all of the images I had taken. It was my first time shooting with the potential for a photo gig and it seemed like a message from the universe that maybe this wasn’t my path. The next day, I watched dozens of hummingbirds all fluttering their wings at hundreds of beats per minute just to stay relatively still and grab a meal. If they could work that hard just to survive, surely I could put forth more effort to pursue a career I absolutely love.  A decade later, I still push hard for every job, working to best share my subject’s story through my diverse styles, and striving to always get a little something more than we’d planned.  (And, I’ve become really protective of my backups.)

My Indiana Muse Documentary. The film is about an artist who discovers a muse (from Indiana). I co-directed/produced and shot stills for BTS and promo and designed artwork.

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 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: Jonathan Beller

It was midnight on March 3, 2017, and Jonathan Beller decided it was time to go out.  This time, he wasn’t going out into the cold Providence night, to the local punk rock club or one of neighborhood hipster bars. It was time to go the hospital.

He put on a vintage t-shirt and then he rested. He got up, put on pajama bottoms, and then he laid down again. Get dressed, rest, and repeat.  A task that would have taken a couple of minutes had taken him three hours to complete.

At 3 AM, he called an Uber and waited.  He sat with the excruciating pain and the extreme fatigue and looked at how bony his hands had become, and wondered for the thousandth time what the fuck was wrong with him.

The ten-minute Uber trip to the hospital in the middle of the night turned into a month-long stay.  The first few days were filled with tests and acronyms: two MRIs, a CT scan, EKGs, an X-Ray, and PIC IV.

After the tests, the doctor told him what the fuck was wrong with him: sepsis and diabetes that had gone untreated for years.  “You were on death’s door when you got here. All of your organs were shutting down. A forty-five year old man of your height should weigh about 150 lbs. You came in weighing 109. You’re very lucky.”

This is a great way to celebrate just turning 45, he thought as he listened to his doctor and the beeping of his machine, and stared at the IV bag above his head.

Jonathan and I had dated for nine months in 2014 and 2015. I was always concerned about his health – he was losing weight and sleeping excessively. I only recall a couple of days together when he didn’t drink excessively. I told him a number of times to go to the doctor, but he always told me not to worry about him.

Of course, I still worried.

I knew deep down that he would end up in the hospital. I spoke to him from experience. I had had my own mortality up in arms when I was 25 with a cancer scare. I knew what I was talking about.

When I saw the first photo Jonathan had taken at the hospital, his arm mangled by syringes, it was my worries manifested. The series that Jonathan created during his month-long stay in the hospital illustrates the black and white tedium of the hospital, filled with bad TV marathons and fluorescent lighting. The waiting as time slowly ticks by. But it also illustrates someone who was on the edge of life and death, and is now reaching towards life.

Written by: Caitlyn DiPompo

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.