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 today’s thread, I am featuring personal projects that are published and where you can purchase the books.

Today’s featured artists:

Matthew Ralston 

To purchase Hollywood Royale, click here

Doug Ross

To purchase Coney Island, click here

Joel Salcido 

To purchase Tequila, click here

Walter Iooss

To purchase Athlete, click here

Grace Chon 

To purchase Puppy Styled, click here 

Also available at other major retailers

Randal Ford

To purchase The Animal Kingdom, click here

Tony Novak-Clifford

To purchase Bali, click here

William Coupon

To purchase Portraits, click here

Nadav Kander

To purchase Beauty’s Nothing, 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.  Instagram

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

Today’s featured artist:  Randal Ford

I’m portrait artist at the core of my photography, so these animals are rooted in classical portraiture, inspired by the greats like Richard Avedon.

In order to capture these images, it’s important that all the groundwork be laid in advance. Meaning, I need to have communication with animal’s owner prior to the shoot to discuss what I’m aiming to achieve, which is typically a headshot showcasing the animal’s personality. As mentioned above, on set, I need to be ready and prepared to capture anything and everything that an animal may give me. Because sometimes I may only get one split second for that perfect portrait.

Obviously access to the animals is a challenge with a project as large as this. I’ve worked with rescue facilities, zoos, private animal owners, or farm working animals (i.e. horses, cows, chickens). So they come from a range of sources and I worked closely with a team of producers to find the right animals and went to great lengths to ensure those animals were living in a great environment and being treated with the utmost respect for their wellbeing. For example, the Cheetah on the back of the book was photographed at an amazing sanctuary called Cat Haven near Dunlap, CA and we are donating a portion of the proceeds to Cat Haven as a way to give back and create more awareness.

Some of the animals I shoot in a traditional studio with a painted Cyc and cover while others I shoot on location where I bring the lighting setup to them. Regardless, I utilize lighting to create a consistent, timeless aesthetic

Finally, not exactly a production or tactical note, but all the animals have names. And this is a very important part of the intention to connect with the audience. By including the animal’s name and story in the book, it further humanizes and heroicizes them to bring you further into their story. The descriptions and names for all the animals are included at the back of the book and at randalford.art. For examples, Highland Cow No. 1 is named Gertrude and The Young Lion with his mane growing in is named Jabari, which means brave. So by including the name, we are pushing the boundaries of the story and connection with the audience.

To see more of this project, click here.

To purchase the book, click here

(or other major bookstores)

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

In honor of Thanksgiving which is all about family.  Have a lovely holiday

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:  Anderson Smith

Anderson Smith Sr was an American photographer who started shooting roughly in the early 1960’s. He was part of a couple of camera clubs, one in L.A and The Chicago Camera Club where he has won numerous awards as an up and coming shutterbug. He was also a part of the only African-American ski club called the Snow Gofers who traveled around the midwest and skied in competitions. My father took a lot of picture of pretty much everything, from people, to objects and life. Some of his influences as a photographer as what he told me were Eggleston, Penn and Gordon Parks. As my mom told me, he always had a camera and was always shooting. Before he passed he left me his life’s work which I have been scanning and documenting since his death in 2006. Roughly 98% of his work has never been seen outside of the family and has been preserved in slides and in boxes for over 40 plus years.

My dad and I were never really close but we became a little closer a few months before he passed as we talked about photography and I had the opportunity to show him my work and hear his opinion as I was just starting out as a photographer.

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:  Fernando Decillis

Photography is amazing for the access it gives the photographer to moments and stories that might not be apparent in a moving moment. It allows you to freeze time and look back at what happened. Or to draw someone out of their shell and learn about who they are. Without a camera, I would probably talk to people a lot less. And I’m already accused of being really quiet at least a few times a week.

My friends at We Love ATL had a brilliant idea— to highlight the unsung heroes who dedicate their lives to serving their communities within Atlanta. They asked me if I was interested in shooting in volunteering some time to making portraits of someone. After realizing how much these people do for their communities, I was hooked! I really took the project to heart and made a personal project out of it. I took pictures of 7 more people after the first.

I met some amazing people through this project. People who have literally changed this Atlanta to make it a richer, safer, and more friendly place to live.

Sanjay Patel, the founder of Soccer in the Streets, is the man Atlanta’s first Marta (Atlanta’s light rail) soccer station. It’s democratizes soccer culture in our city by making the field itself accessible by public transportation and allowing anyone to sign up for pickup games.

Jason Ikeem Rogers, established Orchestra Noir, Atlanta’s first all African-American orchestra. He’s invigorated music culture here and given an underrepresented group of musicians a place to belong and thrive.

Nedra Deadwyler of Civil Bikes offers bike tours of Atlanta that tie history into the neighborhoods’ current cultures.

Pat Hussein is a civil rights activist whose mission is to reframe the way the South is viewed by serving the LGBT community and creating a space of belonging in community. Her organization is called Southerners on New Ground (SONG).

Ultimately, personal projects connect me to my community and give me a window into what is going on right around me. It’s crazy how with a camera in my hand and a story to tell, people just invite me into their worlds.

http://www.weloveatl.org/the-time-is-right/

@weloveatl

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.  Instagram

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

Today’s featured artist:  Dana Sabre

Personal projects are hard! I’ve been trying to do one for years.  I kept thinking…. what do I care about? Empowering women…. the first thing that came to mind was a project featuring the super badass high achieving women who have defied all odds, shattered glass ceilings… survived cancer.  But what about those of us who haven’t crushed chemo or invented Spanx? I started thinking about doing something more simple. Just something very “every day” and relatable…. more me.

I’m lucky to have a large group of amazingly talented and hilarious female friends and I’m one of three sisters. So I drew inspiration from the stuff we talk about and the things we find funny.  My sister and I have always joked about our “mirror faces” we make when we are trying to get ready and the way we must have our mouths hanging wide open to do our mascara (try to do it with your mouth closed, it’s impossible).

That was the idea. For the execution I had a giant mirror behind me while shooting and I told the models to do the things they would normally do in front of a mirror.  I practiced at home with my own mirror faces and wrote down about 50 different kinds of faces incase we ran out of ideas. I’m pretty sure if anyone had seen me preparing for this shoot they would have thought I was mental.  I also had an excellent team of two hair/makeup people and two wardrobe stylists.

Then I sent the work out in an email blast.  I specifically said in my email that this was a personal project. I didn’t say much else however, just a couple quick sentences. Within about 15 minutes of sending my second round of emails out I got an email back from a creative director who wanted me to bid on a job for Samsung.  He liked that I had my own ideas and wanted to work with someone who could get authentic moments from people. I was awarded the job AND I was able hire a couple of people from my original crew for the shoot, which was awesome.  That’s the long explanation. But to put it simply, the important question is — “what’s your mirror face?”

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.  Instagram

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

Today’s featured artist:  Sandro Miller

Centurions. I started thinking about all that time on this earth that these beautiful people have seen good and bad.  Each of my subjects were so kind, generous, and loving.  I was humbled by their insights on their longevity on this earth.  For every one of them, the LOVE they gave and received was the main factor of why they felt they had such a long life.  Their family and friends played equal importance in sharing that love. I was particularly moved with empathy when I was given the honor of photographing the three African-American Centurions.  I thought of the hardships, the injustices they have seen and felt.  I thought of the unthinkable hatred from whites they have all sadly have endured.  I held each and every one of their hands and stroked their beautiful soft cheeks as I photographed them. It is my way of letting them know that I truly care and love them.  For this they gave me a split moment of their time, over 100 years on this earth.  There is so much to learn from these gifts from God that we can all learn from.   I was an honor to sit with each of these beautiful members of our society.

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.  Instagram

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

Today’s featured artist:  The Voorhes

Regarding the project,

Plaster & Bone began as a meditation on addiction.

We all have our vices. Some are innocent and some are brutally self- destructive. But as a society, a global society, we are raging addicts with no concept of control or consequence. Much like the way tobacco creates a body that can’t sustain life, humanity’s addictions to oil and coal compounded with the rapidly growing human population seems doomed to destroy its self.

It sounds dramatic, but can you deny it?

We are living in a glimmering golden age, yet we can all see what’s on the horizon.

***

Regarding the experience,

This project has been an outlet to express themes of anxiety, decay, famine and hopelessness. But also, it has been a venue to explore more traditional imagery at a time when we spend so much of our energy on contemporary visuals. Given that there were no rules, I was able to explore and play. I could re-shoot an image again and again on my own timeline, or abandon a direction if it wasn’t working. That is a luxury I’m not used to. This was the first time in years that I put so much energy into not just testing an idea, or technique or exploring something for a specific project or portfolio development. This body of work exists for no reason other than to exist. Yet, I’m so happy to have put the energy into creating this body of work, and I look forward to developing it in the future. Or maybe not! That’s the freedom of the personal project.

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.  Instagram

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

Today’s featured artist:  Ashton Rodgers

I recently was able to visit my hometown in southeastern Washington… a place that I couldn’t wait to leave growing up and now a place that speaks to my soul. My hometown isn’t traditionally beautiful or really noteworthy for much. But what I’ve come to learn is that it’s rolling hills of alfalfa and open blue skies had a huge influence on my sensibilities as an artist. Locations that are expansive and free of distractions with simple color palettes challenge me to create.

Before my trip I had arranged a lifestyle photo shoot with a Dodge Challenger in Texas where I live full-time. While traveling back from my hometown the concept for the shoot radically changed. Inspired by my recent trip I ditched the complications of sourcing talent and wardrobe and decided to put my focus on the car. Essentially deciding to strip away everything that wasn’t absolutely necessary. Once that decision was made everything else came together and I was free to focus on framing and light.

Simplicity is nothing new, in fact it’s a principle I employ in my commercial work all the time. Going home and seeing the simplicity of the landscapes just reminded me why it comes naturally to me. Less really can be more.

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.  Instagram

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

Today’s featured artist:  Leon Henrickxs

KINGS & QUEENS began in 2015 when Léon created a portrait of his friend Micha and his drag queen alter ego Snorella WC. Two personalities of the same individual laid bare; portrayed in juxtaposition, as if each has his or her own life. The blueprint for an international photo project had been formed: KINGS & QUEENS — guys besides the girl they are inside.

The KINGS & QUEENS portraits invite the viewer to enter into the exotic phenomenon of drag artistry, a world which is usually restricted to the clichés of spectacle, fantasy and entertainment. By gazing upon the fierce drag queen, accompanied by her soberly dressed male half, the viewer is asked to consider the relationship between the two personalities: whose desire is satisfied with the transformation back and forth? What does one ‘get’ from the other? And how do they react when meeting each other for the first time? Do they embrace, flirt or argue with each other?

One thing is certain: the depicted subjects were stunned when seeing the images for the first time. On seeing her portrait, drag queen Extasis Liquuid cried out: ‘Finally my two hearts beat in the same rhythm.’

KINGS & QUEENS is now conquering the world. Berlin, Madrid, New York have already experienced the power of drag, with Cape Town, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Los Angeles and Rio De Janeiro to follow soon. Exhibitions are usually accompanied with debates and discussions about gender, sex and identity conventions. Ultimately the KINGS & QUEENS portraits will be collected, internationally exhibited and eventually published in a book that captures the magic and reality of what it means to be a drag queen.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/kings-queens-drag-portraits/index.html

To see more of this project, click here.

Instagram here

LÉON HENDRICKX

Léon is a Dutch photographer based in Amsterdam, NL. He started his photographic career as a university scholar, absorbing the theories of visual arts and photography at the University of  Amsterdam, Leiden and the Rijks Art Academy in The Hague. In the meantime, he learned the photographic trade while assisting the artists and photographers of the Dutch fashion and  advertising industry. During these assignments Léon developed his interest and skills for the technical possibilities of photography and how to utilize technology to make his dreams seem real.

Léon is intrigued by the extraordinary. He is determined to bring out the ‘realness’ of his subjects, no matter how bizarre, strange or fantastic that may be. But whether what’s depicted is real or not, he wants to make sure that the viewer believes what he creates.

In his series KINGS & QUEENS, Hendrickx explores the world of drag. For him, drag is becoming another character that resides inside yourself. Léon was fascinated by the question of how (or whether) these two sides of the same person could be reconciled. After much experimentation, Léon found a way to portraying both persons in the same image, thereby showing how two characters, wrapped up in the same body, are intertwined.

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

The Art of the Personal Project 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:  Michael Grecco

My Venice People project started almost 30 years ago, when I moved to LA to work for People Magazine from my staff position at the Boston Herald. I was still doing photojournalism then, but yearned to be more of a portrait shooter, a Celebrity Photographer. The interesting this when I look at this work is, it’s a blend of photojournalism and the commercial portraiture I am known for. For a magazine or commercial client, I gather props, build sets, find environments and then use hair, makeup and wardrobe to tell a controlled story. A conceptual approach to storytelling, as opposed to the realist approach I learned at the Herald. But all of these people come with an interesting story written all over them; they have strong identities that tell a clear story.

I have then in turn, taking the lighting and the drama that is my style and turned in on them in the streets, most Venice, but also Santa Fe and Miami Beach. The more recent work has never been shown except on my website, but now I have an opening of large prints on October 4^that the Terrace Restaurant in Venice. Venice on Venice, I guess it’s appropriate.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Paul Elledge

Selma

 I have always reflected on my history to inform and influence my projects.   An ongoing approach in my personal projects is to visit locations that have had influential historical events occur.  When I was a child the civil rights movement played as a continual unfolding story via the news on TV.   I remember seeing with horror the images of abuse of the people attempting to march from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL.  Even then as a child, I wondered  about the madness of how people sometimes treat others.

My project titled Selma starts with those memories of a place and its history.  Although those historical events burned the town of Selma, AL into my mind, this project is not about that particular event.  I traveled to Selma to experience what was going on now, over 50 years later.  Particularly, given the heightened polarization of America currently.

I walked the streets near where the famous images from Life Magazine were taken.  I journeyed by foot to feel the spirit of the place and to meet the people.  The emotions felt on those walks, and the experiences of meeting today’s Selma are what are reflected in this project.   My goal was to create a body of work in Selma that illustrated the dignity and humanity that is in all people, whether historically or more importantly now.

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.  Instagram

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

Today’s featured artist: Bonnie Holland

I’ve always considered myself to be a good writer.  In fact, in college I even got an A in creative writing.  But with this story series I experienced writers block for the first time and I’m not sure why.  It took awhile, but I think I’ve figured out why.   You see, all of my work is playful, creative and very colorful, even the editorials where I’ve “toned” it down.   My work is optimistic and designed for pure pleasure like a bowl of good ice cream with chocolate chips.  I seek to find and put under a magnifying glass the silver linings in life. Does that make me a Pollyanna? Maybe, and maybe I am.  I always felt a certain inadequacy with my work that it was all fluff and had no substance.  Like cotton candy, too sweet and bad for your teeth to boot.   War journalists…. now there was a group of photographers that had purpose, mattered and reminded us of the very real horrors in life.  Not only that, but they risked their very lives to do it.   How could I compete with that?  I almost quit….. almost.

This story was a personal turning point in my photography career and helped me define what inspiration is.  This was the first story that did not spark from daydreams and imagination.  It evolved from a phone call.   My dear friend Marlene was diagnosed with cancer.  Very bad cancer.   The kind that starts the phone call with, “are you sitting down?”  And I felt awful, helpless and devastated.  I wanted to do something, anything…. I wanted to fix her but I couldn’t.  So many emotions…. like a war zone.

My gift to her was a visual story of hope, optimism and the beautiful things in life worth fighting for.  We’ll put the best things in life under a microscope and as she always says, “think good and it will be good”.  She is the physical manifestation of my work… she is happy, optimistic and a fighter. And she has been winning for over 5 years now and going strong.

Her gift to me was vision:  To be able to see my work as a whip or shield against the darkness in life.   Part of problem solving is not only identification but also creating a path toward resolution or the end goal.  I’d like to optimistically believe that our world is moving toward a kinder more inclusive tolerant end goal and put that under a microscope along with Marlene’s beautiful life.

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Eric Espino

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

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Mike Smolowe

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

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

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

Please follow us!

@rescuesoflosangeles

www.rescuesoflosangeles.com

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://www.instagram.com/notengaged

Rafael Mantesso & Jimmy Choo, the dog

Sioin Queenie Liaoand Queenie Liao and Wengenn in Wonderland

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

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

Theron Humphrey  This Wild Idea and featured in Time Magazine

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Adam Ewing

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

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Kris Davidson

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

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

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

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