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.
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.
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
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.
My initial basic idea was to stage a play as a photo and collage series.
In terms of content the series is a funky journey through the topics of our times to the outer edges of our collective cultural memory.
Mainly it is a homage to the theatre itself.
However, it has no stringent plot. I try to create constellations and relations between figures, in each image, that are full of tension and contradiction but don’t make a concrete statement – the plot is meant to arise in the viewer’s mind.
In response to recent developments, I embraced an analog approach. I’ve created stages like compositions with aquarelle paintings and populated them with illustrious figures related to each other through collage, like marionettes playing on a theatrical stage.
I draw my inspirations from across art history and various cultural influences. From the theatre, painting, photography and collage art throughout the centuries.
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
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.
Working with Jan Barboglio in Mexico was an incredible experience that allowed me to capture the soul of her artistry through my photography, both still and motion. I focused on the rich textures, aged patinas, and intricate details that make her handcrafted ironwork so unique. The warmth of Mexico’s landscapes and historic architecture provided the perfect backdrop, enhancing the timeless beauty of her designs. I aimed to tell a story—one of tradition, craftsmanship, and the deep cultural heritage that inspires her work.
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
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.
“Dragon” Glen de Souza founded the Dragon Keylemanjahro
School of Art & Culture in Cocorite, a suburb of Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago in 1986. The main purpose of the school is to keep children off the streets and away from drugs. Searching for artistic activities to engage them in, he rediscovered the art of stilt-walking, a tradition known in West Africa as the Moko Jumbies, protectors of the villages and participants in religious ceremonies. The art was brought to Trinidad by the slave trade but was forgotten soon after. Dragon Glen De Souza can be credited with bringing this tradition back to Trinidad and Tobago in a large-scale fashion. Today his school has over 100 members from age 4 and up. The stilts are made by Dragon and his students and can be as high as 12-15 feet. The children show their artistic talents mostly at the annual Carnival (celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago on February 12 and 13), which today is unthinkable without the presence of the Moko Jumbies. A “band” can have up to 80 children on stilts and they have won many of the prestigious prizes and trophies that are awarded by the National Carnival Commission. Designers like Peter Minshall, Brian Mac Farlane and Laura Anderson Barbata create dazzling costumes for the school which are admired by thousands of spectators. Besides stilt-walking the children learn the limbo dance, drumming, fire blowing (often all done on stilts) and how to ride unicycles. Between 1997 and 2004 New York City based photographer Stefan Falke took countless trips to Trinidad and Tobago to work on this essay which resulted in the book “MOKO JUMBIES:
The Dancing Spirits of Trinidad”, published by Pointed Leaf Press.
The images were in the official selection of the photo-journalism festival Visa Pour L’image in Perpignan, France, in 2004. This is the first time they’re exhibited in New York.
Between 1997 and 2004 New York City based photographer
Stefan Falke took countless trips to Trinidad and Tobago to work on this essay which resulted in the book “MOKO JUMBIES: The Dancing Spirits of Trinidad”, published by Pointed Leaf Press. The images were in the official selection of the photo-journalism festival Visa Pour L’image in Perpignan, France, in 2004 and at Deutsches Haus at NYU in New York in 2018.
Stefan Falke is a German born photographer who lives in New York City and works for international magazines, film studios and corporate clients. He has published four books: “MOKOJUMBIES: The Dancing Spirits of Trinidad“, about a stilt walking school in Trinidad, and “LA FRONTERA: Artists alongthe US-Mexican Border“, for which he photographed 200 artists on both sides of the entire 2000 miles long US-Mexico border to document the vibrant cultural activities in that region. His last two books, “Keep Going New York !!” and “ReflectingNew York” where self-published on Blurb.com.
APE contributor Suzanne Seasecurrently 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
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.
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
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.
Work on the waterfront has been visually recorded in this region since the earliest inhabitants were subject matter for European explorers and scientists The entire East Coast of America and its boat builders are a continuing inspiration for artists of all kinds, whose artwork is curated, cherished, and collected for its content and style. This new project is a modern-day record that continues that effort to capture the heart of our region in images. This large collection presents a photographic and written portrait of some of the many people who make their living in 2015 in the historic Hampton Roads shipbuilding and ship repair industry. In each of the large, black-and-white archival prints. I show a single subject directly, intimately, monumentally and heroically. The work environment is the setting, and portraits range from full-length figures to close-up studies of faces. The subjects include laborers, skilled craftspeople, apprentices, hourly workers, maintenance staff, subcontractors and technicians. Each image is accompanied by a short biographical piece taken from a personal interview conducted at the time of the photograph. My intention is to introduce every viewer to a regional subset of men and women of dignity, talent and commitment, and in doing so create a sort of time capsule of participants in this massive, centuries-old industry and way of life.
Waves of Strength features 50 portraits of African American shipyard workers from the massive Hampton Roads harbor region of Virginia. These portraits were selected from the 398 images in the original collection, workers of all races and sexes, made over a three-year period, from ten regional shipbuilding or ship repair yards. The current exhibition, Waves of Strength, focus our attention on the continuing Black contribution to an industry that makes the area one of the largest ports in the world.
Exhibition title:
Waves of Strength: African American Shipyard Workers of Tidewater Virginia.
Dates- Now through June 22.
Where:
Portsmouth Art and Cultural Center
400 High Street
Portsmouth, Virginia
For more info call:
Portsmouth Art and Cultural Center
757-335-3572
For more information on this work or to purchase a print, contact Glen McClure at glen@glenmcclure.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 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
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.
Like everyone, I struggled with the magnitude of the pandemic; how it insidiously spread and wreaked havoc everywhere it went. In March of 2020, as the virus swept around the globe, my world in NYC became my apartment. I knew that in order to keep safe I wouldn’t be able to access my studio, so I brought my camera home and constructed a small set next to a window.
My days began with looking at the NY Times and Washington Post online, hoping to find a glimmer of positivity. What I found were the maps, charts, and headlines, tracking Covid-19’s spread. Obsessed, I screen grabbed and printed them out to see how the disease had multiplied and moved, soon realizing that each of these little visual changes affected millions of people. The graphics were highly analytical, devoid of the emotional toll of those affected. It felt necessary to use them in my photographs, to help me process this devastating experience.
Eventually, images of the vast number of people who had died began to appear in the news. Grids of people’s faces filled the screen; most having passed alone without family or friends beside them. As the virus moved through the US, many of our political leaders refused to acknowledge the dangers that it posed creating devastation and death. The incredible loss and the politics of this period were incorporated into these photographs.
This series began in March 2020 when NYC was the epicenter of the pandemic. It is a reflection of my emotions and thoughts through those dizzying 18 months. By photographing the recorded data,combined with botanicals, my intent is to speak to the humanity of those affected by this epidemic.Motion in the images was utilized to help convey the chaos and apprehensions we were all experiencing. Once assembled, I now see that these images have created a visual diary of this period, the politics of the time, and the way it has affected our everyday lives.
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
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.
This personal project grew out of a desire to inject energy into my work, creatively and visually, and to explore the human form. I’ve focused on still life for most of my career and part of my interest in that is due to how careful and considered still life photography can be. It took me a long time to learn the technical skills of still life photography, but a longer time to figure out how a “Janelle Jones” still life photo should look, and once I did, I didn’t want to get stuck there. I wanted to push myself to be less cautious and to figure out how I could photograph new, less predictable subjects while keeping my own distinct visual sensibility.
I had also been wanting to photograph my sister, Lindsey Jones, a talented modern dancer who also lives in New York City. Watching a professional dancer like Lindsey at work, particularly in rehearsal or before the movement is polished and perfect, can be a truly revelatory moment about beauty and caliber of the human body. Dancers practice to be able to control their bodies’ most minute muscle movements. Lindsey’s movement is particularly impactful because of her long limbs and acute awareness of shape and space.
She’s also very energetic. So a collaboration between us seemed like the perfect way to inject energy into my work, and challenge myself on how to light and represent the human body and movement.
Lindsey and I also share a visual sensibility, and we have both long loved the work of Norman McLaren, a Scottish Canadian animator whose short animations are bold, colorful, and often hypnotically repetitive. McLaren’s Canon (1964) and Pas de Deux (1968) are both studies in motion and play on manipulation of time and space. Those two animation pieces inspired the decision to use in-camera multiple exposure and motion blur to play with how we translated dance, a medium dependent on time and space, into a single-frame photograph. Lindsey’s clothing in the photographs was also influenced by the eye-popping colors of McLaren’s works.
This project was a true experiment and collaboration between photographer and subject. It’s an exploration I hope to continue finding fresh ways to challenge myself, collaborating with other artists, and bringing new ideas into my work while staying rooted in the precision and intentionality that have always defined my photography.
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
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.
My friend Phoebe called me and said would I like to come and take pictures in Kenya. She was co-guiding a group
that would be exploring biodiversity in a stunning part of East Africa. We would be based on a nature conservancy in the greater Serengeti surrounded by the cultural heritage of the Masai people.
As I had never explored Kenya I jumped on a plane to Nairobi.
While I was there, I took pictures which told the story of the group who were traveling which they could use for their personal use.
I did however manage to capture a personal series of images which I thought would pair together well. We often were with local Masai people and in the village, we would run into nomadic tribes who were passing through.
Once I edited my series I mixed local people, landscape animals and some off the western travelers. I saw similarities with us humans and the wild animals. The costume of the tribal people was particularly vibrant against the greens of the Mara.
Since returning I read the Peter Beard bio “Wild” which laid out his wild life and his love for Kenya. I definitely would like to return there, hopefully with my family sometime as the land and the animals are truly unforgettable.
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
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.
This series holds profound significance for me—marking both my return to Mumbai, the city of my birth, after years at boarding school in England, and my debut as a photographer. Through the lens of the Ganpati festival, I sought to reconnect with the city’s energy, its traditions, and its soul.
The festival culminates in a moving ritual: the immersion of Lord Ganesh idols into the ocean, symbolizing renewal and impermanence. With a pair of Nikon FM cameras loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film, I ventured into the vibrant chaos and quiet beauty of the celebrations the morning after… At the time, Tri-X film was hard to come by in Mumbai, and I had only 3-4 rolls for the entire project. Every frame mattered, and each shot demanded intention and precision—a limitation that shaped my approach to storytelling.
One defining moment came when one of my cameras slipped into the sea—a loss that mirrored the themes of the festival itself. Fortunately, the camera was repaired, reflecting the spirit of resilience and restoration that characterized those times and became an ethos for my creative practice.
Shooting in black-and-white with Tri-X film allowed me to focus on texture, contrast, and emotion, stripping the visuals down to their essence. Each photograph captures not only the event but the layers within it—the intricate artistry of the idols, the shimmering water, and the heartfelt devotion of the people.
This project was a deeply personal journey. Returning to Mumbai after my time in England gave me a fresh perspective, allowing me to see the familiar through new eyes. Documenting the Ganpati festival reaffirmed my belief in the power of photography to preserve fleeting moments, honor traditions, and reveal the extraordinary within the ordinary.
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
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.
This series questions the nature of beauty, while simultaneously showing the beauty of nature.
When I returned to my studio in Milan just after lockdown, my aim was to capture the inherently perfect aesthetics of these plants. Maybe it was the time and place of the shoot, but something about beauty for its own sake didn’t feel quite right. As I was working, my eyes fell on a piece of plastic, which I dropped onto a flower, interrupting its beauty. In a way, this is exactly what is happening to our planet – the disturbance on nature that can no longer remain hidden.
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
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.
This was a personal project that had been on my mind for some time, and in the Spring of 2016 all the pieces finally came together. The idea was relatively simple, creating authentic portraits of people struggling with homelessness, but it involved quite a few moving parts that needed a team of people to solve. After multiple rounds of meetings and pitching we landed on building a studio-like space at the Springs Rescue Mission in Colorado Springs (https://www.springsrescuemission.org/) and allowing for 30 minutes with each subject. Our goal was for these people to feel seen and heard, for someone to look them in the eye and tell their story, maybe for the first time.
We spent most of every session talking to each person, finding out about them, hearing their story and memories from their childhood. In the beginning I was nervous about asking them some of these questions, things like “what’s your favorite food?” or “tell us one of your fondest memories from childhood?”, but in the end they were happy to tell us, more than that, they were excited that someone wanted to know. We heard beautiful stories that day, from pet racoons to strawberry festivals and everything in between. As they spoke, I was struck by how we are all connected through this desire to feel seen and heard, yet so often they are treated with such contempt. We pretend not to see, we look another direction, cross the street, busy ourselves on phones to seem unaware. Even though this project was done in 2016, how much truer is this today?
After about 20-25 minutes talking with each person, while drinking a cup of coffee and having a snack together, we created a portrait. What I realized right away was how incredibly vulnerable this moment was, they were allowing me to show them at what is typically the lowest point they have been in their life. When we started the first portrait I knew this was different than any portrait I had done, we were going to have to break through shame and discomfort in just a few minutes, but how? After a few seconds of looking through the camera I realized that wasn’t going to work, so I stood up with my hand on the button and started talking to them again. I would ask about something from their story, looking at them in the eye and listening. While they talked, I pressed the shutter button, only a handful of times, and never for more than 5 minutes…some of them didn’t even realize I had started or finished. What we ended up with was beautiful, they were moments of story and connection.
My goal with this project was never to just take some images and post them on social media or a website somewhere, it was always to create something that would inspire people to change how they see. Because of this there was the pursuit of another big idea, having them displayed in a museum. We had the images printed huge (4 ft x 6ft), and thanks to the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs, we were able to display them in a gallery for three months. There was a beautiful opening where people from all walks of life came together to support our community, and perhaps to see these people in a way they never have before.
In the end this project was even bigger than I could have dreamed of, and the images are still being used to this day to raise money and awareness in our community. I hope this project can inspire you to use your gifts to give people a voice, to bring light and connection through your art in a way that only you can.
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
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.
“I feel that my mother was not fully recognized during her lifetime, nor after she died. Between being a mother and an artist, with this work, and the time I’ve spent with the images and documents, I honor her. I’m expressing my love for her, bringing her back to life, and giving her a voice.” — Loli Kantor
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
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.
Photographer pays homage to Our Lady of Guadalupe and reclaims her connection with the divine
It’s not uncommon to see an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on murals, candles, statues and even clothing. She’s a significant religious figure who signifies hope and protection for countless Latinos in the U.S. and abroad.
For photographer Amanda Lopez, her image goes beyond religion, serving as a powerful emblem of home.
Catholics believe that, in 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared before Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Indigenous farmer at the Hill of Tepeyac in a suburb of Mexico City. According to the story, she left on his cloak an image of a brown-skinned Virgen de Guadalupe, which still hangs at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
” In it, Lopez reimagines Guadalupe in a contemporary context.
During a college trip to Mexico City, Lopez visited the basilica and was moved by the sacredness of the moment. She photographed a floral “set” on the grounds, and it became an image that stayed with her for years to come. However, like many Mexican Americans, this wasn’t exactly her first encounter with the Patroness of Mexico.
Growing up as a first- and second-generation Mexican American in California’s capital, Guadalupe was a deeply ingrained part of her daily life. She attended a church named Our Lady of Guadalupe up to her teenage years and was surrounded by Guadalupe’s image in her childhood home. Her family’s Catholic values initially shaped her own, though she began to question them as this project took shape.
“The question that I kept asking myself when I was working on this project was, ‘What does it mean to be a good woman — a Mexican woman, a former Catholic woman, a good woman — in my grandmother’s eyes?’ ” Lopez said. “You have to be humble, respectful and quiet. You go along with the status quo. And then I was really uncomfortable with that idea.”
Lopez then began to deconstruct that line of thinking and began to visualize how she could portray these conflicting thoughts photographically. “And that’s when I started to reimagine what Guadalupe might look like and understand that to be a ‘good woman,’ you don’t have to be any of those things.”
Lopez deliberately excluded adjectives commonly used to describe Guadalupe such as “Lady,” “Virgen” or “Madre” when naming the series.
“I wanted to move beyond traditional notions about womanhood and let viewers create their own meanings. I went through my own unlearning by questioning those same terms and, in that process, was able to reconnect with her.”
For Lopez, Guadalupe signifies all that is good and loving. And her definition of what “good” meant transcended a religious context as she delved deeper in her relationship with her.
“She’s all encompassing — what is nurturing and what is caring. For me, that’s not an exclusively religious thing. She’s evolved to this symbol that actually reminds me so much of my own grandma.”
Lopez grew up seeing her grandma Isabel — also known as Nana — on a daily basis. Guadalupe was a religious presence who guided Isabel through a life filled with many highs and some heavy lows. And though Lopez has a different relationship with the patron saint than her Nana ever did, she wanted to honor everyone’s individual journey with Guadalupe.
“I know so many people who have this connection to her [Guadalupe] that are not Mexican, that are not straight, that are not women and that are not religious … And so when I was making these photos, I wanted to have the opportunity to chat with folks and ask, ‘What is it about her image that you resonate with?’ ”
For some, she’s a religious icon. For others, a cultural figure. Many are also simply captivated by the beauty of her art. For Amanda, she represents the connective thread that unites us.
In 2021, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History added 15 of these photographs to their Photographic History Collection. Now, they are being exhibited in Sacramento, Calif., the city where Lopez first connected with Guadalupe.
“It’s a little bittersweet because my grandma won’t be there,” she said. Isabel died in 2020 at the age of 91 and was buried with her favorite Virgen de Guadalupe necklace. “But she’ll be there in spirit.”
Nuestra Madre. Sacramento, CA 2019 Tyler Wichmann shares his Our Lady of Guadalupe back tattoo, created by renowned tattoo artist Chuco Moreno.
Recuerdo de Tepeyac. CDMX, Mexico. 2006Nana’s Hands. Sacramento, CA. 2019. My grandmother always wore her gold Our Lady of Guadalupe necklace. I never once saw her without it.
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
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
“And to All a Good Nightcap: The 12 Cocktails of Christmas”
And to All a Good Nightcap: The 12 Cocktails of Christmas is all about capturing the heart of the holiday spirit through mixology and storytelling. Each cocktail in this series isn’t just a recipe—it’s a celebration of tradition, creativity, and the joy we share during this magical season.
With this project, I reimagined Christmas as a blend of flavors, community, and the cultural traditions that make the holidays so special. Santa himself takes the lead, narrating each drink with his signature charm and nostalgia. From the boldness of The Smoking Gun to the tropical refreshment of the Key West Mojito, each cocktail tells a story, inviting you to savor not just the taste but the moments they create.
This project wouldn’t have been possible without an incredible team. A huge thank you to Patty Hussey from The Production Party for her amazing work as producer and stylist, and played the part of Santa for the drink images. Thanks also to Ken Womack and Mike Stopper from The Agency Hack, for bringing it all together with their fantastic title and design.
For me, this project is about more than cocktails—it’s about celebrating the joy of connection, the stories we share, and the memories we create over a glass. Here’s to raising a toast to life’s most spirited moments. Cheers!
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
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.
An inconvenient truth of life. There is a fragility. There are no guarantees.
Partnering with Catching Lives, a hardworking and underfunded group of dedicated people in Canterbury.
I was determined to offer what help I could to highlight the current growing crisis we are facing of Homelessness on our streets. After many weeks of gaining the trust of a few of their ‘clients’ I have been fortunate enough to be invited into their world to produce a set of poignant portraits. Shock, sadness and at times anger do not begin to describe how fragile our lives are and how quickly things can take a turn for the worse. The project sets out to document the journey of those I met revisiting the places where they slept rough on the streets and in many cases after a long personal battle, before finding their new homes.
The biggest thing I learned though shooting this project is how fragile we all are as humans. For those who find themselves suddenly displaced in society — we all have a duty of care.
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
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.
In the dance between commercial obligations and personal passion, photographers often find solace and inspiration in the pursuit of personal projects. Photographer and Director Doug Menuez, having spent most of his life behind the lens and professionally shooting for decades, recently embarked on a sabbatical with his wife to Portugal. In this time, Doug has had more opportunities to shoot personal projects and get to know the country and people and has opened the door to a new chapter in his photography.
Initially living in a 500 year-old “noble” manor house in a medieval village, they recently moved to an ocean view apartment in a beach town famous for having the longest left hand break in Europe. As he immersed himself in the culture, language, and landscapes, the country revealed itself in multifaceted ways. From the lively streets of Lisbon, adorned with culture and a vibrant nightlife that attracted notable personalities like John Malkovich, to the romantic cobblestone streets of wine country, each corner of Portugal became a canvas for Doug’s lens.
What aspects of Portugal make it an exciting destination for shooting assignments?
Having become well-acquainted with the language, culture, and diverse topography of Portugal, I think it’s a great place to hold a shoot. The mainland itself offers a staggering variety, from historic cities like Porto to the picturesque countryside, mountains, and valleys. The Atlantic and Mediterranean coastline, featuring renowned surf towns and the world-famous waves of Nazare, adds another layer of charm. I am captivated by the sun-drenched beaches, villas, and villages of the Algarve coast. Each mile of the country offers something different, but it’s a relatively small country making moving to each region quite easy.
Logistically, how are you finding producing shoots in Portugal?
Since arriving in Portugal, I have reconnected with a long-time collaborator, European Producer Staffan Tranaeus, who has been based in Lisbon for the last 30 years. Staffan’s company, Southwest Productions, has an extensive track record of producing advertising shoots, broadcast productions, documentaries, and TV features across Europe and the world. Their knowledge and network make Portugal a well-wired and accessible destination for creative projects, providing photographers with a valuable resource for seamless execution and exploration
What are the greatest benefits of shooting in Portugal?
There are relatively low production costs here, especially compared to LA or New York. This includes talent, locations, scouting, and casting, making it an attractive destination for creative projects. Crews are experienced and professional, and all the latest gear is here. Plus, with an average of 300+ sunny days a year in most locations, Portugal provides a reliable and stunning backdrop for photoshoots. The country’s excellent infrastructure, pristine highways, comfortable trains and other mass transit, as well as numerous high-quality hotels, ensure smooth operations. Despite its ancient history and appearance, Portugal is a surprisingly high-tech country, way ahead of the US in many areas such as super high-speed internet. As an additional bonus, the warmth of the people makes the entire experience even more enjoyable.
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
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.
Relative Moments, a series I began in 1986, chronicles ordinary moments of my extended family’s activities. I am interested in the significance of the commonplace routine of their lives—the personal moments that define for each of us a sense of home, security, and belonging. I began by photographing my parents’ home in Iowa. It was a personal documentary effort, starting when my parents sold the house we lived in when I was a child. They moved, and subsequently I realized that their new house was now home. So, I took pictures of that. My scope expanded as I started taking pictures of my aunts and uncles and their houses and yards. After my son was born, he appeared in the images too. Although the project started out as nostalgia and documentation, I discovered that the pictures comment on more: a glimpse into an intimate detail of an everyday world that otherwise might go unnoticed. This project captures a visual history of one family’s life, yet I feel there is an ongoing narrative embedded in these photographs that conveys larger, more universal truths about American culture, familiarity, and the endless source of everyday wonder that surrounds us.
NOTE: I featured Deanna “Leaving and Waving” in 2022 on this forum. It found its way recently on to an Instagram reel and went viral on TikTok, Reddit and Facebook.
She was recently featured on CBS Nightly News and Inside Edition. This is why personal projects are so important.
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
