Waltham Expo Seminar: Storytelling: From Passion to Portfolio: Building Powerful Photo Projects with Purpose with Lou Jones
May 9 @ 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Class Summary
May 9 @ 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
This seminar is designed for working professionals, serious amateurs, and educators who want to transform their personal interests, lifelong obsessions, or creative instincts into meaningful images—and income. How to turn your personal passion for photography into gallery exhibitions, long-term projects, books, and/ or large collections. Whether as a primary focus or alongside teaching and commercial assignments, these personal projects can be documentary or expressive in nature. Over the past few years, opportunities for funding and exposure have expanded dramatically, and this session will explore how to identify and market your audience, revisit existing bodies of work, and use your two greatest assets—time and imagination—to realize your most ambitious visual goals. Most importantly, it will provide inspiration and guidance on how to reinvent yourself in these complex and ever-changing times.
Lou Jones reflects on how he has built a successful career in an ever-changing and evolving industry. From commercial photographer to photojournalist and personal projects spanning decades. Lou will show you how he has stayed a working professional, what mistakes to avoid, how to create a unique personal style, staying on the client’s radar, marketing, and separating yourself from the crowd. He will showcase examples from his long-term projects spanning over 30 years, like photographing 13 Olympic games, a traveling exhibit featuring famous jazz musicians like Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, his award-winning book Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row, and ongoing projects like the panAFRICAproject.
Join Lou as he tells stories that will both educate and entertain, whether you are just starting out or a seasoned pro.
About Lou Jones
Lou Jones is a Boston-based photographer whose distinguished career spans more than five decades, evolving from high-profile commercial work to deeply personal, long-term documentary practice. Since 1973, he has operated a commercial studio in Boston, collaborating with Fortune 500 companies and international clients including Nike, Federal Express, and KLM, while also completing major assignments for National Geographic and Time/Life and covering 13 Olympic Games. His photography has taken him to 65 countries and 48 U.S. states and has been widely exhibited, including at the Smithsonian and the DeCordova Museum, and featured on the front page of The Boston Globe. His work is held in prominent public and private collections, including Harvard University, the Boston Athenaeum, the Fitchburg Art Museum, the Boston Public Library, and the University of Texas.
Jones’s publications include Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row (1996 & 2002), Travel + Photography (2006), panAFRICAproject, Volume I (2020), and panAFRICAproject (2025), with a second volume of the panAFRICAproject recently released. A highly influential figure in the photography community, he has served on the boards of leading arts organizations, co-founded Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts, and conceived several prestigious photography awards. His recent honors include a 2024 Mass Cultural Council Grant and recognition as a Boston Memory Maker by the Old South Meeting House. A respected educator and lecturer, Jones remains actively engaged in his ongoing panAFRICAproject, most recently traveling to Uganda in 2024.
