Author: 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:  Carlos Javier

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

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

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Dominic Perri

Latchkey Kids

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here

Instagram

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Mark Harrison

‘Last Orders’ Project as photographed by Mark Harrison.

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Shaun Fenn

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

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

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

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Sean Scheidt

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

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

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

Instagram

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Claudine Williams

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

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

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

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

First Assistant: Leslie Horn

Hair and make-up: Priscilla Freire

Stylist: Cleo Urman

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Judy Doherty

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

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

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Andrei Duman

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Chad Holder

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

To see more of this project, click here.

Instagram

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Matt Odom

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

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Christian Tisdale

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

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

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Damien Carter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, my objectives with this personal project are simple:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Instagram

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Greg Anderson

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

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

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

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

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Hugh Kretschmer

Working Title: Boxed

This project’s impetus started with watching boardwalk chalk artists create elongated illustrations that, when viewed from a distance, foreshortened to appear three-dimensional, especially when people interacted with them. In my approach, the opposite happens- a 3D collage assemblage that ends up appearing in two dimensions.

I chose an outside corner as the overall shape because I wasn’t quite sure my theory would work. I had to keep it simple. I realized the “box” metaphor when I made my first sketches and thought about what that meant.

To me, a box can either be protection or a prison, depending on the subject. If in the form of protection, an environmental subject comes to mind. If in the form of imprisonment, then social issues seem applicable. So, I chose the latter as my first subject, and my friend, Cash Danielsen, came to mind.

When I approached him initially, I wanted to make sure the metaphor was something he could relate to in his experience as a transgender person. He confirmed that, indeed, it did, and away we went.

What I find so exciting about this project are all the possibilities in the vast array of subject matter and the technical aspects this process demands. It involves a precise workflow that I thrive on as an artist. For the illusion to succeed, all working parts must be duplicated over two capture sessions. Everything is marked, measured, calculated, and recorded throughout the entire project. Only in this way can the process deliver an illusion created in front of the camera. It’s that same outcome I’ve strived for throughout my 32-year-long practice, and I never seem to grow tired of its magic.

~Hugh

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  John Dyer

Mariachi-John Dyer

They file in one by one, these kids, carrying their instruments. A young man with his harp, three more with trumpets, two young women with violins. A tenor guitar or vihuela, a large bass guitar or guitarrón. These are mariachi musicians.

They arrange themselves on the stage in two semi-circular lines. Violins and guitars in front, trumpets in back.

Finally, the singer walks in and takes her place in front of the group facing the audience.  She is dressed in a colorful, form-fitting floral, floor-length dress.  Her black shiny hair is pulled back in a bun fixed with colorful ribbons. She carries a large black sombrero trimmed in gold.

These are high school kids from La Grulla, Texas and musically refined beyond their years.

They wear Charro-inspired uniforms. Men in beautifully embroidered pants with rows of buttons down the outside of their legs, a short, waist length jacket also embroidered, a white shirt and colorful silk ties.  The young women wear the same uniform except they wear long fitted skirts that fall to their boot tops.

Mariachi is a Mexican style of music dating from the 18th century. The groups play a variety of musical styles including rancheros, corridas, cumbias, huapangos, boleros, etc.

The music begins. A bolero, a romantic song. The singer is very dramatic and emotional in her delivery.  She holds the microphone with one hand and with the other gestures with outstretched hand to the heavens, then makes a fist and pulls her hand to her heart. Such emotion! She sounds like a mature woman who has loved and lost and loved again. I think to myself: this is a 17-year-old girl!  How did she learn to sing like that? How does she know to make her voice laugh and cry?

These portraits were done at the Mariachi Extravaganza in San Antonio, Texas.  It’s an important yearly contest that has been going on for more than 20 years.

To see more of this project, click here

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:   Adam Pass

“As an artist, I am constantly seeking inspiration for my work. What could be more inspiring than the humble Icelandic hot dog? This legendary street food can be found on nearly every corner in the country. Their abundance and affordability make them a go-to snack for locals and visitors alike.

But beyond the delicious flavor and convenience, I was drawn to the quiet beauty of the experience. An empty late-night stand offers a sense of calm and solitude in the midst of a busy city. From the steaming sausages on the grill and the colorful condiment bars, to the vendor preparing the hotdogs with care, each photograph tells a story of tradition and the simple pleasures of life. Through my photography, I sought to capture the quiet, meditative side of this Icelandic staple.

Whether you prefer yours with ketchup and mustard or the more traditional toppings of sweet brown mustard and crispy fried onions, there is something for everyone to enjoy. If you ever find yourself in Iceland, be sure to grab a hot dog and take a moment to soak in the unique atmosphere and culture of this beautiful country.”

To see more of this project, click here

Instagram

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:   Tyrone Turner

As frigid wind whipped across the ship’s bow, I held the railing with one hand and steadied my camera with the other. In front of me stretched the Bellingshausen Sea, off the coast of Western Antarctica. I was there — my second journey to the region around the southernmost continent — early this year on a five-week voyage as a photographic expert aboard the National Geographic Endurance. A small group of passengers and I stood on the deck together, wrapped up tightly against the below-freezing temperatures, documenting this otherworldly landscape.

Pancakes of sea ice covered the waters as far as the eye could see. A lone emperor penguin tucked its head into its chest of feathers. As we sailed past seals resting on the ice, they raised their heads and promptly slid into the water. This frozen world seemed so different and foreboding — and yet, at the same time, familiar. In a strange way, I felt connected to my subtropical birthplace thousands of miles away — in the coastal regions of southeastern Louisiana.

To see more of this project, click here

Instagram

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

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

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

Today’s featured artist:  Ian Spanier

MoTo

Two days before a quarantine order was issued (March 2020) I had begun my latest personal project. The concept was a series of portraits of motorcycle riders, chosen partially for the bike they rode, but more on the individual. Whenever I embark on a personal project, I do so in part to always have a project going on in the background to my normal commercial work, and secondly to find a new challenge for myself. Usually, this is in the form of creating a new form of lighting or in approaching shoots differently. I find this to be a great means of growing as a photographer and adding techniques to my arsenal of lighting options for my assignment work.

In my last body of work, Right Next Door, I chose to approach all my portraits with minimal lighting, and instead of my normal heavily technical approach for lighting, I chose to simply “bang” a light into a wall or ceiling to light my subjects. For MoTo, I wanted to shoot with a much deeper depth of field for my portraits, specifically an aperture of f20 in opposition to my normal comfort range of f8 and wider. This would of course mean the need for MORE lighting. To add to the challenge, I wanted to create this look in my home entryway and living room. This presented a series of challenges for space, obstacles and length and height limitations. What I did not realize, was how this shoot would shape how I would work for the rest of the pandemic.

Then the quarantine was ordered.

Like most, I had no idea what would be next, how long we would be quarantined, and what the next step would be. More so, how would be career be affected? An opportunity to take a free Covid Compliance Officer Training Course was offered by ASMP, so I decided to take the course. I had no plans to be an officer, but this would give me a better understanding of things to come.

Five weeks past, and I was churning out the results of my first shoot, and absolutely loving the results…but I was stuck. I really wanted to continue, but Hollywood was literally shut down. How could I continue to shoot when everything was shut down? Well, I now had some tools…I knew what a “safe” shoot looked like, and a way to turn my living room into a white studio. As was already my practice, I shoot with a CamRanger 2, a fantastic camera accessory that allows for a jpg to be wirelessly sent to an iPad, iPhone or computer. This allows for my clients on set to see images in near real time, and in this case, my subject to see from the recommended six-foot distance while we are working. I am not one to ever really sit still, so with the belief that I could work safely with my newly gained knowledge, I began to seek out more subjects. Some subjects I knew, either from previous shoots whom I knew were riders, or some pervious connections of mine who I just noticed they were motorcycle owners. From there, I used the likely/unlikely source of Instagram to do so. By searching through images of motorcycles, then whittling down to Los Angeles, I was able to make connections with more riders. I simply reached out, and asked, sharing my images along the way. With images, I was able to easily explain my concept. Sure, there was skeptical responses from some, Coronavirus or not, but it always helps to have images to back up the request. Slowly, I was able to add subject two, three, four, and so on. One unplanned benefit arose, which was this manner of shooting, combined with the knowledge of a newly appointed Compliance Officer, I began to reach out to clients, and let them know I was ready and willing to work, and how.

My next subject was found through a conversation with a model agent I regularly spoke with. She had wanted to connect me with one of her models, who just happened to ride a bike. I explained my new process and how we could safely do a shoot and check off another subject. Add to that, this inspired the same agent to suggest me to a contact of hers who needed a clothing catalogue photographed but was stuck how with the limitation of the now lengthy quarantine. I presented the process and BOOM, assignment! Now I truly had a means to keep working, despite the limitations. My new client stayed in Arizona, comfortably in her living room, watching my shoot on ZOOM, with the ability to talk to both me and the carefully scheduled models (who were separated by 30 min windows so I could clean/sanitize in-between), and see my images in real time thanks to CamRanger 2’s ability to be on a dual WIFI band from my home while ZOOM was also running.

From here, I kept rolling, seeking out subjects from IG as well as recommendations from my subjects, and on and on. Finally, my hope was to round out the project with a Motorcycle Club…easier said than done. Nearly six months later, after many rejections ranging from “we have members who are photographers, so we wouldn’t want to have any conflicts,” to simple “we are not interested” responses, I finally found a willing club. I sensed the reluctance of Venice Vintage Moto Club president Dayne Ashbaugh, but I persisted, and he ultimately agreed to help. It took a couple months, but finally we had a plan to photograph fourteen members, all in one morning, this included members, as well as probate members along with their bikes. Now, as I mentioned, the idea was more about the riders than the bikes, but per Dayne’s request, the guys would love to be shot with their bikes. Worth it for sure, as the vintage bikes are quite special.  Unlike my home location, we chose to shoot outside, which presents many other challenges, but as I always say, I call them challenges, not problems for a reason, because challenges are meant to be solved, and I love a challenge.

Shooting in the back of Dayne’s high end window company, the morning was spent mostly in the shade of the building, but I came prepared for sun with some 4×4 black floppy flags and thankfully, as it is LA, some of the guys were in the business, so they happily (and thankfully) lent a hand playing grip as well as shoot some great behind the scenes pics.

To see more of this project, click here

Instagram

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

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