artists in jackson

Artists In Jackson

Since June, I’ve been working away on a portrait project featuring artists from my hometown of Jackson, Michigan.

For one, it’s the second part in what I hope will be an annual project of highlighting interesting people in my community. And two, I love talking to people with interesting talents and hobbies. It was great to meet the 15 artists profiled and chat about artsy stuff with them, the artistic community in Jackson, and what their successes and roadblocks look like.

The project is now just about ready for primetime. You can see the particulars at artistsinjackson.com.

There’s lots more to do. I’m working on a printed book, the flagship end product of this project. Once that’s done and ready to print, I’ll publish the artist profiles on the website, and release an eBook version of the print book.

And from there, I hope to have a show of some sort in the Jackson community, and invite the community to meet the artists and see some of their work.

It’s been a lot of work, and a lot of fun. Artistically, it’s very different from the kind of photography I’ve focused on in the past. I feel different, too. It’s like all the portraits and images I’ve worked on before this have been overly amateurish.

With this project, I’m actually making photographs that matter.

I hope you join me for the ride in the next few weeks.


Make Local

Over the summer, I worked on a portrait project with local artists in Jackson, Michigan. I talked with them about their craft, how they got started, and why they stuck around our hometown to do creative work.

The project is called Artists In Jackson: Make Local. The kicker was each artist had to be from Jackson, and had to still be doing their thing in Jackson. And the project focused on visual artists, but that could be anyone from graphic designers to painters to videographers and photographers.

This fall, I’ll launch the project to the public. But for now, you can sign up for a newsletter (of sorts) to get updates when it’s ready to roll, including fun behind the scenes shots and announcements about the project.

Stay tuned!