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:  Angie Smith

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

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Doug Ross (originally posted in Nov. 2017 but again for the 4th of July)

Artist Statement:

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

To see more of this project, click here.

To purchase the book, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Vincent Dixon

Pushkar Studios

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Kris Davidson

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

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

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Todd Weaver

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

This limitation is the foundation of my new book 36.

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

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

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

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

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

Andru Sisson

Ariana Papademotroupolis

Devendra Banhart

Elena Stonaker

Eric Johnson

Jasmine Albuquerque

Mark Maggiori

Ryan Heffington

Zak Schlagel

To see more of this project, click here.

To purchase 36, click here

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Clay Cook

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

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Gustav Schmiege

Fire Roasted in Williamstown, MA

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Tom Hussey

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Clay Cook

The Voiceless

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

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Agnes Lopez

Artist Statement

Agnes Lopez – www.agneslopezphoto.com

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

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

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

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

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

Ella Rogozinski, 91
Holocaust survivor, Auschwitz

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

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

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

Morris Bendit, 77
Holocaust survivor and Israeli Navy veteran

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Tony Novak-Clifford

Artist’s Statement On the Book:

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

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

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

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

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

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

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

Bali: Portraits of Life, Culture & Ritual

 Published: April 2018

Author: Tony Novak-Clifford

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

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

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

Contact: tony@tonynovak-clifford.com

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

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Amy Neunsinger

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist: Ian Spanier 

RIGHT NEXT DOOR

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

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

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

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

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

Dane Elliott Lewis, Civil War Reenactor, Aerospace Engineer.

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

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

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

Jon Hayman, Television Comedy Writer

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

– Lena Marquise “Mistress Lady Wednesday,” Dominatrix

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

George Lois, Famed Creative Director.

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

To see more of this project, click here.

In the press, check this out

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

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

Today’s featured artist: Jason Schmidt

Jason Schmidt

May 13^, 2012

Brooklyn, New York

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

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

To see more of this project, click here.

To purchase his most recent book click here

(Artist I is sold out)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist: Gustav Schmiege

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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

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

Today’s featured artist: Michael Greenberg

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

To see more of this project, click here.

Or for his Instagram, look here:

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

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

Today’s featured artist: Peden+ Munk

To see more of this project, click here.

Motion portion of this personal project:  Click here

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

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

Today’s featured artist: Rob Gregory

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

To see more of this project, click here.

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