This year is a great time to challenge yourself, grow a creative habit, progress in your craft and get feedback from peers and professionals. And what better way to do so than by joining Sony Artisan Brooke Shaden's Sony Alpha Female 52-Week Challenge in our Sony Alpha Female+ Facebook Group? From April 3, 2025 to April 2, 2026, you'll create a new piece of art weekly for a YEAR!
Make sure you visit the Sony Alpha Female+ Facebook Group on April 3 at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET for a live chat with Sony Artisan Brooke Shaden and our Editor-in-Chief, Michaela Ion. They’ll discuss the 52-week challenge, share upcoming inspiration, and answer some of your questions. We have a headstart with some tips from Shaden below. Keep reading as she shares her advice for starting your own personal project.
What Is A Personal Project?
Human experiences vary widely, but what we feel during those experiences is universal. Grief, joy, fear, trepidation, wonder – emotion is the life-blood of humanity. When you consider creating a personal project, consider that your experiences may differ from others, but the emotions you felt during that experience will be similar. This is the perfect jumping-off point to begin a project.
But, what exactly is a personal project? Think of it as a photo series where your intent is to create a small body of work that speaks to a specific, personally meaningful idea. Here are five ways to get started:
1. Focus on a sustainable idea. Answer this question: If you could only think about and create around one single idea for the next year, what idea would sustain your interest and curiosity? There are many categories you could choose from: a personal and meaningful experience you had, a social or political issue, a core memory, a place or people you think deserves more exposure, a belief you hold.
2. Consider your genre. After you have an idea, you must consider the way you will create this personal project. Is the idea best served through photo-journalism, fine art, portraiture, wildlife, or something else? Then dive deeper: What visual style would keep you interested while also furthering the idea? Everything must serve the idea.
3. What is your opinion? When you create a personal project, opinion is an inevitable and important part of the equation. You’re a human (congrats!), which means you have opinions. Some are so ingrained, we call them beliefs. Bring your opinions and beliefs about the idea to the table. The more specific you can be about how you feel toward the idea, the more specific your project will be. Ask: How do you want to make others feel when they see your project?
4. Specificity and universality. Great personal projects say something about the creator, but also speak to the viewer. You can say something unique about yourself and your experience of your idea while also tapping into an emotion others have inevitably felt, thus bringing the viewer into your story. When the specific becomes universal, you’re well on your way to creating a moving personal project.
5. Find your story. Like any good movie or book, there’s a clear story being told that anchors the viewer and walks them through the world the writer has created. The same goes for your personal project. Drill down into the idea that interests you to find the kernel of gold that really gets at something special. For example, I created a series called Samsara that was meant to be about death. But, that’s a generic concept that doesn’t mean much unless you’re telling a specific story. Over the four years it took me to make the personal project, I kept drilling. Eventually, I discovered the series wasn’t really about “death”, but about how different cultures grieve communally. That brought a narrative through-line to the work that also anchored it in specificity and nuance.
In the case of Samsara, I incorporated mixed media. Each image is a one-of-a-kind archival pigment print combined with acrylic paint, dirt, sand, and sometimes feather and human hair. That idea came to me after working on the project for two years and has been my most successful series with museums for this reason.
Samsara also includes video elements, like this recreation of one of the prints as a moving image:
Credit: Directed by Brooke Shaden, filmed by Devin Schiro
Other personal projects I’ve created include Begin Again and Fourth Wall, both great examples of how to keep your visuals consistent to create a cohesive body of work. In Begin Again, the monochromatic color palette unites the images.
In Fourth Wall, the repeated motif of the four containing walls create visual cohesion.
Always consider how your personal project will fit together. What is your visual and narrative throughline? Both are important when working in a visual medium. Are your colors pulling the visuals along, or is it a sense of place, motion, character, editing style, etc.? As for the story, are you telling a story in sequential events, or is it more abstract, where the images can fit in any order?
Here are three great reasons to create a personal project:
1) It will immediately give your work a boost technically and conceptually. You’ll be forced to find a new way of expressing yourself that expands your skills and storytelling chops.
2) It will give you a great body of work to submit to contests, galleries, and even museums.
3) You will go deeper as an artist when you dive into a single idea and really hone your ability to express something specific in your work.
Join the Sony Alpha Female+ Facebook Group to be a part of Shaden's 52-Week Creative Challenge to start your own personal project! To kickstart the challenge, Sony Artisan Brooke Shaden and our Editor-in-Chief, Michaela Ion, will be going live on April 3 at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET in the Sony Alpha Female+ Facebook community.
Make sure you visit the Alpha Female Facebook Group on April 3 at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET for a live chat with Sony Artisan Brooke Shaden and our Editor-in-Chief, Michaela Ion. Join the Alpha Female Facebook Group to be a part of Shaden's 52-Week Creative Challenge to start your own personal project!
