For the past few years, I’ve had this question in my head.

If I had no clients, what would I be photographing?

The answer to that isn’t clear to me yet, but I know that my personal projects point towards the intersection of art and science. I haven’t shared much so far because I’ve always had a hard time fitting both my commissioned client work with my personal projects into a comprehensive yet cohesive website. So I grabbed a huge metaphorical sharpie and drew a straight line right across my photography and brain.

On one side, there’s alextranphotography.com (where you’re currently reading this). There, I show two commercial portfolios: my editorial portraits and my headshots. Those are the kinds of photos that I get commissioned for by individuals (artists, entrepreneurs, etc.) and companies (employee headshots, photos for website, etc.). It’s what I do full time, and it’s what I’ve focused on for the first 4 years of my photography career. I’m extremely grateful for many aspects of this client work, but I also know that for me to feel creative and fulfilled, I also need personal projects that I can work on in parallel.

The second website that I’ve just created is alextran.ca and it’s where my personal projects will reside. By letting these projects have their own dedicated space, I’m hoping to also dedicate more time in my life to work on them. This platform also shows more clearly how I see myself as an artist. Prospective clients will still find my work through my old site, but this is what I’ll present when applying for exhibitions, grants, residencies, etc.

Managing two websites may seem like I’ve just given myself a lot more work to juggle, but right now I feel liberated, like I’ve finally organized a long overdue cluttered closet.

If you haven’t seen it yet, please take a look! I’d love to hear what you think!