Category: 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:  Maansi Srivastava

From NPR Picture Show:  Through her grief, an Indian American photographer rediscovers her heritage

Editor’s note: May marked Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which celebrates the histories of Americans hailing from across the Asian continent and from the Pacific islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. NPR’s Picture Show will be bringing stories from these communities to our audience this month.

I developed this photo essay, Roots Hanging from the Banyan Tree, over the past three years. Photography became my therapy as I grappled with loss, grief and racial reckoning over the course of the pandemic. Searching for my identity as an Indian American woman became intertwined with the struggle to ground myself after losing my grandmother to COVID-19.

After her passing, my understanding of life and death shifted. In conversations with my mother, I learned that we both felt a sudden severance of our roots. In my grief, I grasped for memories of a simpler time. I connected with the Patil family, hoping to find a semblance of my childhood in their homes. Through documenting their daily lives, recollections of cultural rituals from my childhood began to flood back in. I also found that I was not alone in my experiences and fears of losing my connection with my heritage.

These images represent my experiences growing up between two cultures while navigating girlhood and early adulthood. I saw myself in the Patil family’s young children. While looking back through my old family albums, I found that our shared rituals and experiences were nearly identical. I suddenly felt less isolated in my experience as an Indian American and as a third-culture woman.

In their home, I was able to revisit memories as a young adult and recognize the beautiful aspects of the Indian American experience. What began as my thesis work grew into a labor of love that has shown me that my roots and cultural connection have been with me all along. As children of a diaspora, our cultural roots continue to grow and spread, but the soil is ours — we flourish where we are planted.

     

To see more of this project, click here

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Maansi Srivastava (she/they) is an Indian American documentary photographer and photo editor focusing on widespread social issues through a lens of family and community. She previously worked at the Washington Post and NPR. This June, she’ll begin a yearlong photography fellowship at the New York Times. See more of Maansi’s work on her website, maansi.photos, or on Instagram, @maansi.photo.

Zach Thompson copy edited this piece.

Grace Widyatmadja oversaw production of this piece.

 

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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Gregor Hofbauer

I’m a member of the LGBTQI+ community and attending pride marches and protests to achieve visibility for the community is a must for me. In my first few years of attending these events I expected mainly younger people being active in that matter. But, since I’m eager to look beyond the obvious, I realized that at least here in my hometown, Vienna, the group of supporters showing up at our biggest event – the „Regenbogenparade“ – is quite diverse in age. With my personal work I always like to ask the question, „Did anybody notice this?“.

So with “The Other Vienna Pride Visitors“ I dedicate my time and focus to all the “grown-ups”, who, after quite some time in their life, still find the energy to go out and respect and enjoy what the pride parade stands for.

To see more of this project, click here  (scroll down to The Other Viennese Pride Visitors)

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

 

Today’s featured artist:   Jennifer MacNeill

 

No farm is complete without a barn cat.

Expert mouser. Sunbeam seeker. Driveway greeter. Lap warmer. Horse spooker. Fence sitter. Feed room sentinel. Cobwebbed whiskers.

The cat is an often overlooked resident at a stable yet they perform such valuable tasks.

When I visit a farm I always ask how many cats do they have and where do they like to nap. It’s often in a little pool of light somewhere in the hayloft.

Cats seem to know what light will work best for a beautiful photograph. They are little living works of art.

To see more of this project, click here

Instagram

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration 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.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

 

Today’s featured artist:  Saroyan Humphrey

On Nightlight

In the dark, light can take on new meaning and offer a fresh look at what may, in daylight, seem ordinary. In night’s shadow, the world looks different. In this ongoing series I look for a special quality that makes the usual seem extraordinary in some way. In this realm, I try to offer a scene that draws the viewer in to evoke an emotional response, however subtle. Like a bright moon rising over the horizon, a light in the dark can bring intrigue, and wonder.

Offering security and comfort, a light at night can keep the unknown from creeping in.

I focus primarily on local settings, including nearby suburbs which remind me of my childhood backdrops, growing up on the East Coast. With influence from a variety of artists, including Jan Staller, Robert Adams, Gregory Crewdson, Todd Hido, and Robert Bechtle, photographing with long exposures at night offers a moment when things slow down and become almost surreal in stillness. In its own way, I like to think of it as a mediation on the essence of photography.

To see more of this project, click here

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

 

Today’s featured artist:  Eric W.Pohl

The art of glassblowing has fascinated me since the first time I saw a demonstration at a renaissance festival more than 10 years ago. The journey and transformation from a lump of molten glass in a sweltering workshop into a delicate, colorful fine art piece is truly magical — and a visual treasure trove for a photographer like me.

I love working with artisans and makers and wanted to create some storytelling imagery to use as portfolio/promo material. So, I approached artisan Tim de Jong of Wimberley Glassworks about setting up a shoot. Tim and his team were gracious enough to dedicate a half day to setting up and photographing their process.

After some trial and error, we were able to find a good balance with the lighting. I wanted the workshop dark enough to easily capture the glow of the molten glass, but also wanted to cast a directional, window-light feel on the subjects.

The first thing you notice when you get up close and personal with glassblowing is the heat. Not only are there multiple furnaces raging at over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, but there’s heat radiating off the molten glass itself as the artist works it.

In the beginning stages, the glass looks like nothing more than a glowing mass on the end of a stick. Watching glass artisans work, you really get an appreciation for the vision they have to imagine the finished product.

There’s never a dull moment while the glass is taking form. Working quickly, Tim and his team roll, blow and swing the glass like a pendulum to shape it while in its molten state. Along the way, they carefully add colors and texture by dipping and rolling the hot glass into other colored glasses. Finally, they use a variety of tools — some unexpected — such as scissors, hammers, pliers, wooden boards and even rolls of wet newspaper to work the glass to its final shape and size.

It’s truly an awe-inspiring experience to watch glass come to life. Thank you to Tim de Jong and Wimberley Glassworks for the opportunity.

To see more of this project, click here

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Carlos Javier

The literature and images of migrant workers have become part of our rich American history. From John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Dorothea Lange’s iconic image of the “Migrant Mother” and César Estrada Chávez’s legacy as a farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist, my childhood memory is just one small piece of a long struggle.

Immigration and the need for labor are inextricably connected. By the early 20th century, American cities were growing dramatically, and more agriculture was needed to meet expanded needs for food. Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1917. This law established a legal basis for the importation of some 73,000 Mexican workers. During the Great Depression, foreign demand for agricultural exports plummeted and prices dropped. In an effort to open up jobs to native-born citizens, the Immigration and Naturalization Service cooperated with local authorities to deport more than 400,000 ″Repatriados” back to Mexico in the 1930s. At least half were U.S. citizens, mostly the children of immigrants. Generations later, the situation remains very similar.

More than eight million undocumented workers, who comprise five percent of the work force, are embedded in the American labor market. Many risk their lives to cross the border; many die on their way, while others are caught by the US Border Patrol and deported. Undocumented workers face extraordinary economic hardship in their home countries, encouraging them to endure these dangers. In 2011, the U.S. expelled nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants (ICE, 2011).

It is not surprising that migrants often work in the most undesirable occupations: meat-packing plants, landscaping, and harvesting crops; all are low-wage jobs in physically demanding and difficult conditions. Most middle-class Americans would never dream of accepting such toil with low wages and without legal accountability or safety standards. Yet these tasks remain essential, underpinning the basic fabric of the American economy and quality of life.

All the while, undocumented immigrants live under the radar with meager wages and poor access to education, social services, and health care. Nonetheless, I have seen how they remain resilient and strive to be part of the American Dream.

 

To see more of this project, click here

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Dominic Perri

Latchkey Kids

noun: latchkey kid a child who is at home without adult supervision for some part of the day, especially after school until a parent returns from work.

This project was a group collaboration project with AD/Prop stylist Lauren Niles, Food Stylist Chantal Lambeth and myself.

This was shot during the pandemic to bring us back to a time when our biggest concern was what concoctions we were making for our after school snack.

To see more of this project, click here

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

 

Today’s featured artist:  Mark Harrison

 

‘Last Orders’ Project as photographed by Mark Harrison.

A hop farm in southern England-surviving the pandemic of 2021/22 forms the basis of this personal project. Last Orders is always shouted just before a pub closes nightly, and (this year), might be the Last Orders for this farm.

Hops are mostly used in beer making in the UK, for which demand has reduced during this crisis. Using vintage equipment and traditional methods, I set out to record what might be their last crop after hundreds of years at the same farm.

It’s astonishing to see age old ways and 60-year-old machinery, still in use in a modern Britain. This project aims to remind us that our past is sometimes still present and that a determination to keep traditions alive, is sometimes more important than the profit it may (or may not) generate.

 

 

To see more of this project, click here

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Shaun Fenn

While many of us spend the winter months bemoaning the cold weather and counting down the days until spring, Minnesotans are playing pond hockey.

Huddling up on small, neighborhood ponds where the ice is continually undulating under foot to play shinny, northern communities know how to keep the winter doldrums at bay. And capturing the sport, a derivative of traditional hockey played at a smaller scale, had been on photographer Shaun Fenn’s project wish list for some time. “An opportunity presented itself to go up north and do this shoot, so I jumped on a plane and went for it,” he says.

“Anything that’s active and that’s outdoors, I love,” Fenn explains. He spent five days documenting the action at the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships. “It was fascinating to watch this pond hockey subculture and to draw similarities between what we do to have fun over on the West Coast. This is these people’s passion: they do it at odd times of day or night, when it’s 15 below out, drinking their Hamm’s or Busch beers with their babies bundled up, rolling around on the ice, having a ball.”

As Fenn explains it, pond hockey is played with far fewer people on the ice at a time, no goalie, and wooden two-by-fours at each end of the rink to serve as the goal. “The pond is frozen with a foot and a half of ice, which, by the way, is expanding and contracting and cracking the whole time, “he says.

Fenn’s series includes portraits of individual athletes as well as plenty of on-ice action shots—sticks and skates caught in motion, cloud-like breaths rising up from the movement. Rather than have the perspective feel like that of a spectator, he wanted the lens to focus in close, to allow the viewer to feel like they were right there, part of the game.

“I like my imagery to feel tactile, emotional, inclusive. Even if you haven’t ever played pond hockey and never will, I hope you can look at those and get the feel for the sport and can put yourself into the action,” he says. “These people just had such a wonderful attitude, doing what they love in the frigid, frigid cold.”

To see more of this project, click here

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Sean Scheidt

“Time Spent” is an intimate portrayal of enduring love and familial connections through life’s uncertainties. Initially, the series aimed to document and preserve memories of the moments shared between the photographer and his grandparents. However, after his Uncle Stephen’s unexpected passing at 52, the project took on a deeper meaning, becoming a way to process and contextualize grief.

Throughout the series, highly personal encounters illuminate changing seasons of life, joyous moments, and unforeseen tragedies. As the series progresses through loss and illness, the emotional connection between the photographer and his subjects allows the audience to see these events through an intensely personal and empathetic lens.

Each photograph captures a singular moment in time, evoking a sense of vulnerability, tenderness, and honesty that invites reflection on one’s own experiences of love, loss, and resilience. Together, the images weave a touching story of family bonds, the fragility of life, and the enduring power of memories.

Instagram

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

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:  Claudine Williams

To keep my skills sharp and get my creative juices flowing, I do several personal projects each year for my portfolio. This work encompasses my many interests while representing the type of work I’d also like to do professionally. It’s an important practice that allows me to build a narrative – and tell a unique story – from my point of view. I love it.

A few years ago, I photographed a rather elegant woman with her prized Morgan horse but, hindsight being 20/20, I didn’t paint the picture I wanted to paint. There was something missing so I decided to make another attempt at photographing one of these majestic animals. Fortunately, I got a second chance via the goodwill of Sandra Campos, the kind-hearted owner of Sugar Bear Farm in Hudson Valley, New York.

Sandra is a generous soul who created Sugar Bear Farm to “rescue unwanted, mistreated, slaughter bound horses” in the area. And she’s got a long list of professional accomplishments too. Born in Texas, Sandra is a first generation Mexican-American business leader who rose to the ranks of CEO at Diane von Furstenberg’s eponymous company. Currently, she is a CNBC on-air contributor and the founder of Fashion Launchpad.

For this exciting shoot, I was inspired by beautiful glossy magazines like Town & Country and Vanity Fair. My aim was to convey a sense of luxury, balanced with a down-to-earth, realistic feel. A variety of wardrobe options were provided but I made the final clothing decisions to show this amazing woman in the best light. Overall, I was pleased with the results, particularly when considering the natural time limitations that accompany almost any shoot. I see this work as an editorial or commercial story, matching my intentions.

First Assistant: Leslie Horn

Hair and make-up: Priscilla Freire

Stylist: Cleo Urman

To see more of this project, click here

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Judy Doherty

Judy Doherty’s work as a photographer and fine artist explores natural and man-made processes that quickly and slowly change the environment. She creates photographs, water-based paintings, mixed media prints, and collages. By exploring the concepts of landscape and time, Doherty’s creations establish a link between the landscape’s reality and that imagined by its conceiver. These works focus on concrete questions for our current and future existence.

Outsourced is a project that began while photographing the beautiful historical buildings on Mare Island in California. The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was an important Pacific Ocean access shipyard. The beautiful colors and textures felt very melancholy when coupled with the history and dead silence of abandonment. The earthquake damage on brick adds an extra element of interest and texture.

To see more of this project, click here

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Andrei Duman

Andrei Duman is an artist who never stops seeking innovative processes and pushing the proverbial creative envelope. 

With his childhood starting in communist Romania, devoid of color, Andrei first stepped into technicolor when he moved to the UK and saw sweet shops and magazines bursting with vivid hues. One magazine, aptly named BUGS!, caught his eye and serves as the inspiration for his project ExoSkeleton.

Under the stewardship of the Natural History Museum of San Diego and the University of California at Riverside, and in partnership with Phase One, Alpa, Sandisk Professional and Zerene Stacker, this project showcases Andrei’s creative versatility in harmony with his technological prowess.

To see more of this project, click here

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Chad Holder

The same street, the same drive into the studio, the same everyday- everything begins to look the same.  Egypt was a journey of discovery and exploring how I see when I am simply shooting for myself, I call it having fresh eyes. By leaving behind the familiar surroundings of home, to open myself up to new experiences and perspective. In a foreign place, every sight, sound, and texture are novel, and this sense of novelty can awaken the senses. Moreover, the beauty and wonder of new landscapes and natural features can be inspiring and evoke a sense of reverence and gratitude for the world around us.  Making pictures is more than a job- it’s something that feeds my soul.

       

To see more of this project, click here.

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APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Matt Odom

This work explores the love for Bar B Que in the south.  It is often said here down in the south that Along with football, religion, and politics, BBQ is one of the four topics that Southerners will never agree upon”. My hope is that for this photo essay, the viewer will get a small sample of how each BBQ establishment takes on their own personality and  take on providing the southern delicacy of “Bar B Que”.

   

To see more of this project, click here

Instagram

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own.  I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before.  In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find.  Please DO NOT send me your work.  I do not take submissions.

Today’s featured artist:  Christian Tisdale

Everyone in our industry talks about how photographers need to shoot personal work. We’ve all heard it, and I, like so many busy photographers, always pushed that stuff aside. Why would I shoot unpaid work when I could be shooting paid projects? Then Makers came along and changed all of that.

Makers is a series of images that focuses on the human experience of making – it’s about the patina and scars on experienced tools and experienced hands, finely tuned workshops perfected over thousands of hours of iteration, and individuals that dedicate their lives to creating. Makersis an answer to the numbness of consumerism based in the mass-produced goods that we’ve become so accustomed to.

I’ve always had a burning need to create things, anything – I’m obsessed with the act of making and the attitude it takes to create something from nothing, to create a tiny piece of order from the chaos. I love the spirit of creation, regardless of what the end result is. Which is where Makers was born.

I’ve been actively shooting Makers for nearly 2 years now, and it has completely changed my career. The project has grown from a couple of creative sessions with artisans in my small town, to a significant body of work that has opened doors to the biggest paid projects I’ve ever worked on. It has also shown me this warm and inspiring community of wildly interesting Makers in the Vancouver area and beyond. I’m so thankful for the ways that this project has affected my work and my life.

I hope you enjoy these images as much as I’ve enjoyed making them.

To see more of this project, click here

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

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:  Damien Carter

 

No one can forget the images of the senseless and heartless murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and many are also aware that only a few months earlier on Feb 23rd Amaud Arbery was also murdered.

It was Amaud’s murder that was very personal and the genesis of this project. He was chased down and hunted while jogging in a neighborhood in Georgia.

When watching the footage on the news, my son walked in and before I could turn it off, he saw the story and began asking questions.

Besides the expected, “why did they do that to him” he also asked the more jarring, “is that going to happen to you dad”?

I wasn’t even thinking about myself, but I stopped for a minute and struggled to say, “no that wouldn’t be me” to try to reassure him but immediately started thinking – it could have been me.

Any of these murders could have been any of us black men. Across all walks of life, from boys to men we are targeted. And whether we are sleeping, walking, running, driving, putting our hands up, putting our hands behind our backs, or riding our bikes, we are targeted.

The vilification of the victims is an age-old tactic to dehumanize them and to in some ways justify their murders.

But I reject that. I believe that all these unarmed men deserved to live.

So, my objectives with this personal project are simple:

To shine as much light on the issue and to “speak their names” so they aren’t forgotten.

Some of the names will be known but many others most people won’t be familiar with, so we speak their names to honor them and remember them.

And every black man in America realizes: It Could Have Been Me.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Images from the ongoing series: “It Could Have Been Me” By Damien Carter,

(@Dcarterphotography) a portrait and lifestyle photographer out of the Washington DC area.

Note: on the back of each card that had a victim’s name on front, was the news story about the actual killing and the men read those while I captured their raw reactions and emotions.

Instagram

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.

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:  Greg Anderson

 

After attending The International Center of Photography, I assisted several photographers and then went out on my own in 2004. Times got tough in 2008 and I took whatever jobs I could get, happily. I was making a living as a professional photographer, but I was shooting food, catalog jewelry and architecture- not very well by the way. I was uninspired by the direction my career was taking me and it became apparent I needed show clients what I wanted to be hired for.

 

In 2012, I saw a local news story about the “National Beard and Mustache Championships” having just taken place down the street from my studio in Las Vegas. I reached out to the producer of the event who invited me to join them for the competition in New Orleans the following year. In late 2013, after months of testing lighting styles in anticipation, I flew down there with an assistant and all of the gear we could carry on the plane. All in, it cost right around $3000 to travel down and do the shoot.

 

The result of the project was a body of work that I loved making and I now had international exposure after the gallery got shared and went viral online to the tune of 1.2 million impressions in the first week and over 2 million in the first month. I immediately sent out a calendar, email promo and then a printed tri-fold promo to capitalize on the attention. Several advertising agencies took notice, and the resulting shoots and global exposure made the initial investment of $3000 money well spent.

 

I just shot the National Beard and Mustache Championships for the 10th year in 2022. Each time I have tried to evolve the project with subtle lighting and background changes to make them feel a little different. I’m planning on shooting an international competition to round out the project before self-publishing a coffee table book, that I’ll then send out to ad agencies as a promotional piece. I have made quite a few friends photographing the world of professional bearding and don’t have any plans of stopping. It’s just too fun.

To see more of this project, click here

Instagram

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s.  After establishing the art-buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty.  Follow her at @SuzanneSease.  Instagram

Success is more than a matter of your talent. It’s also a matter of doing a better job presenting it.  And that is what I do with decades of agency and in-house experience.