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:  Ann Hermes

For the past six years I’ve photographed local newsrooms from Alaska to Florida, documenting the dedicated but dwindling local news landscape. As a photographer with over 15 years of experience in newsrooms, I have a great deal of respect for the institutions that bring small communities the news.

An average of two newspapers shut down every week. In the wake of these closures many communities become news deserts. In their place is an information landscape of nationalized, and increasingly partisan, news that is ripe for misinformation. Studies now show that local government spending goes up, voter participation declines and cities often lose their bond rating after the loss of a local newspaper. Local Newsrooms needs to convey these insidious and largely unseen impacts.

With a growing catalog of images, video and interviews, I’m working to create a visual story of regional and national relevance. I plan to display some of this work in small town libraries, and similar spaces to make local newsrooms more visible in their neighborhoods. My goal is to use this work to engage communities in the search of and support for trusted local news while at the same time raising the importance of this issue to a national audience that may not have fully realized what has already been lost, and what is at stake.

The Conway Daily Sun newspaper morgue in Conway, New Hampshire on April 21, 2023. The free newspaper was founded in 1989. The printing press connected to the newsroom ceased printing in 2023.
From left, digital community engagement journalist, James Rinker grabs a laptop as education and environment reporter, Jamie Browder, public safety and criminal reporter, Christopher Cartwright, and visual journalist, Hannah Schroeder move desks in The Keene Sentinel newsroom on February 19, 2024 in Keene, New Hampshire.  © Ann Hermes 2024
Printing press operator, Cameron Blum, runs the printing press for an edition of The Keene Sentinel on February 19, 2024 in Keene, New Hampshire. The Keene Sentinel has one of only a few printing presses in operation in New Hampshire.  © Ann Hermes 2024

The Conway Daily Sun newspaper morgue in Conway, New Hampshire on April 21, 2023. The free newspaper was founded in 1989. The printing press connected to the newsroom ceased printing in 2023.

Clippings of bird photos line the walls of the printing press room at The Keene Sentinel on February 19, 2024 in Keene, New Hampshire. The printing press operators started the bird gallery. “That’s what we run. Every day there’s a bird picture. It started out as a joke, but now it’s an art project,” says Brian Ahern, who has operated the printing press for The Keene Sentinel for over 30 years.  © Ann Hermes 2024
Rick Clark, Keene Sentinel copy editor, looks through microfilm of the newspaper in the newsroom in Keene, New Hampshire on January 8, 2024. The paper was founded in 1799 as The New Hampshire Sentinel and an independently owned publication that runs six days a week.
Broken newspaper bins sit in the parking lot of The Auburn Journal on July 10, 2023 in Auburn, California, northeast of Sacramento. The newspaper was founded in 1872 and is owned by Gold Country Media. The Auburn Journal covers Placer County, near two news desert counties.

To see more of this project, click here

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

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