Make Beautiful

1. Amit Gupta 2. Ben Lowy 3. Chris Appelgren 4. David Martinez 5. Eileen Calandro 6. K. Flay 7. Katie Sullivan 8. Peter Ellenby 9. Sion Fullana 1 2 3

It’s a fight to see the beauty in life. It’s a conscious effort to combat the negativity around us, and a reminder that the world is what you make it. We all have the power to create, to inspire, to express—and it’s time to seize that power.

We asked one simple question.

“How Do You #MakeBeautiful?” Photojournalist

I’m a photojournalist who has covered major news events with Hipstamatic— embracing a new visual language that lets me communicate with the public.

My whole goal is to create beautiful aesthetic images of important stories. I’m trying to find a way to attract the public, the audience, to events and ideas that might be looked over otherwise.

Musician & Recording Artist

Right now I play live shows, make music and sweat in public. I released an EP earlier this year called Eyes Shut, and I feel like it really represents where I’m at both as an artist and as a person. I’m currently recording my first album & touring across the country. Sometimes it’s beautiful, sometimes it’s beautifully absurd.

For me, music was an unexpected catharsis. It’s strange to say it now, since I started rapping and producing on a total whim, but music has become the avenue through which I understand myself. I’m an anxious, contemplative person by nature—songwriting is an outlet for that energy. It’s the way I let loose and forget about why I was worried in the first place.

photojojo Founder

All of my projects have been about creating personality and fun on the Internet. Jelly, the free-for-all world-wide coworking movement, barcamp, personal projects like urban camping in Times Square with visitors from around the world, and of course Photojojo!

Life is too short to take things too seriously, and I think most of us spend so much time trying to be more efficient, more productive... we tend to forget that it’s really about fun—finding it, and spreading it to others.

We make beauty at Photojojo by making photography more fun for everyone! There’s a million and six sites that will give you camera and lens reviews and breathlessly give you every PR release or app launch. That’s not us.

We scour the depths of the Internet looking for the most creative, inspiring, and quirky projects. We crawl the Earth for obscure photo tools that bring the joy back into your shots. We put little dinosaurs in every box we send our customers. We do it because we adore this crazy thing called photography. We think it’s the most beautiful, simple, and immediate art form ever created, and we want you to love it every bit as much as we do.

I work with AN amazing team of professionals on the Breathmobile, a nonprofit healthcare service. We provide care to children in underserved communities in the Bay Area who suffer from asthma and allergies.

I believe in health-care equality. To me, that’s making beautiful: making sure every child has access to quality healthcare, regardless of their socioeconomic status.

Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Merchant Relations Manager at the Bold Italic

I think one can make anything beautiful by taking a little bit of time to stop and think along the way. For me, it’s much easier said than done. I get excited about a project I’m working on and the specific idea or belief that is inspiring me and its easy to miss the point entirely. The [same] way you might miss an exit by driving too fast. Whenever I’ve stepped away and stolen a little time to consider what I’m doing, the results are always better, and sometimes, beautiful.

Street Photographer

I capture instances of life around me, stories, emotions, details, and turn them into little capsules to share with the world through my work.

I constantly search for the beauty in those little things—gestures, body language, the heartbeat of cities—that many people don’t even see in their rushed path through everyday life. I put them out there to be felt and experienced. With my street photography and documentary work, I try to preserve a bit of what’s around me everywhere I go, to cherish what’s here today without knowing if it will be there tomorrow.

There’s already so much stress, cynicism, pain, and de-humanization in the world that I need to look everywhere I can to try to find the soul in things. To say, “Hey, there is still magic, connection, and beauty out there. Let’s not give up; let’s keep on trying.”

Chief Mom Connector at Momcentral.com

I’m an uber-mom to three boys, and I couldn’t imagine my life any more beautiful than spending it with them and my husband. I make beautiful as the Chief Mom Connector for Mom Central (www.momcentral.com): I love hearing everyone’s stories, sharing mine, and figuring out where and how we’re connected.

My belief in all of us being connected gives me the drive and energy to smile when I don’t feel like it; to put in an extra effort even when I’m pretty tapped out. If we all work to make a beautiful world—even in small ways that might not seem to matter—these small pieces add up to a larger picture of the world I wish for myself and, more importantly, for my boys. If we don’t model how to make beautiful for our kids and for ourselves, who will?

Music Photographer

I’m merging my love of music and photography. Nothing inspires me more (besides my wife and daughter) than the beauty of music. It gets into your heart and soul bringing all sorts of emotions to the surface. The fact that I’m able to get into such close quarters with the people who create such a driving force in my life blows me away. The photographs that I make of them are a reminder and record of their contributions to my life and to everybody who listens to them.

Modern Dancer

I’ve made the transition from being a professional modern dancer in New York to living in San Francisco and starting a career in marketing and community engagement. I’m incredibly lucky with my job, because it also allows me to stretch into areas of strategic planning and artistic development for our dance program, community partnerships, and even finance and budgeting—and I’m loving it all!

I consider everything I do, from my job to my friendships to my photography, all attempts to make beautiful. Highlighting the beauty in the messiness, the randomness, the oft-overlooked small details of our lives thrills me. I’m obsessed with people more than anything, and find myself looking, watching, and studying them all the time. It’s from trying to understand other points of view that I’m able to not just make beautiful, but also see the beautiful that is already there.