Turning Personal Projects Into Paid Work
Personal projects can define your voice, expand your vision, and open doors professionally, but getting that work published and paid for doesn’t happen by accident.
In this session, Ann Hermes shares how she develops personal projects with intention, builds access, and creates work that stands out to editors and clients. She’ll walk through practical steps for pitching, marketing, and positioning independent work so it reaches the right audience—and generates real opportunities.
Designed for students and working professionals alike, this session offers a candid look at how passion projects can strengthen your portfolio, clarify your brand, and become a meaningful part of your business.
Speaker
Ann Hermes
Visual Storyteller
I am a Brooklyn and Boston-based photojournalist and visual storyteller with a flair for the nostalgic. I create documentary tableaus that explore the roles that often overlooked, and sometimes outdated, institutions and people play in our history, culture and future.
I’ve worked in a variety of logistically challenging situations on national and international assignments over my 15 years as a staff photographer for The Christian Science Monitor and other national and regional news outlets. This work ranged from breaking visual news coverage of the Arab Spring in Egypt to in-depth stories following Syrian refugees in Eastern Europe. My stories have also been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and AARP.
After years of experience in news photography, I am using my documentary expertise to create a visual exploration of the current critical era in journalism and explore the potential harm that the loss of local newsrooms would bring to our democracy.
My Local Newsrooms project was recently published in The New Yorker, exhibited at Photoville and profiled in Lenscratch.
I hold an MA in Journalism from the University of Missouri.