Biography
Tampa-based award-winning photographic artist Amy Martz is celebrated for showcasing her unique take on visual environments with images that provide a refreshingly unexpected perspective.
A master of composition and lighting, Martz compels the viewer to experience what is seen as mundane on an engrossingly visceral level by approaching the conventional with an unconventional and creative eye.
The artistry of Amy's work invites the viewers eye to further explore the structure, architecture, artisanship and history of how desire and passion breed beauty in the landscapes that surround us.
Amy is the featured artist for Tampa four-star hotel, Le Meridien, where her Best of the Bay award-winning “Tampa Discovery Moments” art collection is displayed throughout the hotel’s guest rooms, lobby, and the hotel brand’s renowned arrival artwork.
In addition to Le Meridien, Amy has multiple pieces of art displayed in the City of Tampa’s permanent artwork collection, The Oxford Exchange, Shanna & Bryan Glazer Family JCC, Arturo Fuente Cigars World Headquarters, CW's Gin Joint and many private art collections worldwide.
Despite most photographers not being awarded a museum exhibition in their lifetime, Amy's co-exhibition with acclaimed photographer Maria Bevilacqua entitled New Visions (pictured right), ran at the prestigious Florida Museum of Photographic Arts (FMoPA) in 2016 and is being prepared for a global tour.
Artist's Story
In 2007, Amy Martz had a dream to buy a camera, and start her own business. So the next day she went and purchased the most expensive camera that she could afford, which wasn't much.
Two weeks after her dream, Martz was laid off from her full-time advertising career and has been a self-employed and self-taught photographer ever since, achieving much success and respect as an architectural and fine-art photographer, receiving many high honors and awards, including the University of South Florida for Outstanding Young Alumni, Business Observer's 40 Under 40 (Florida's C-Suite newspaper), Creative Loafing's Best of the Bay for best Hotel Art (Tampa newspaper), and Tampa's Chamber of Commerce Local's Best.
Having a lifelong love of historic buildings, Amy joined the board of Tampa Preservation, Inc., Tampa's most prominent historic preservation group where she met architecture enthusiast and historian, Linda Saul-Sena, who would mentor and teach Amy about beauty and how architecture is our most prominent form of public art as it defines cities, regions, and even countries.
Martz quickly realized that great architecture tells a story of the era in which it was built, and has creative purpose in both form and function.
Although mostly known for her commercial and fine art photography that's focused on architecture, Amy also enjoys all types of photography, including photographing animals, as well as taking "legacy portraits" for select clients.
Clients
Credentials
Education
2000-2004 University of South Florida, B.A. Interpersonal and Organizational Communication with emphasis on Marketing Communication
Select Awards and Honors
2014 Business Observer's 40 Under 40 Award, Florida C-Suite Newspaper
2016 Best of the Bay Critic's Choice Award, Creative Loafing, Tampa, FL
2017 University of South Florida’s prestigious Outstanding Young Alumni Award presented by USF's Alumni Association, Tampa, FL
2021 Women’s Art Journal, Cover, National Publication
2022 dezeen awards winner, photograph of Bending Arc sculpture by Janet Echelman, Winner: Installation design of the year 2022
2023 Cover and Feature in Flagler College Magazine, St. Augustine FL
2023 The Place Economy - Volume 3, Book Cover, Australia
Featured Published Work
Travel + Leisure
Women's Art Journal
DEEZEN
MY MODERN MET
Fast Company
Sky Arte
DuPont Registry
Arch Daily
Visit Florida
Interiors Magazine (Korea)
Gulf to Bay
Time Out
Creative Loafing
The Sun (UK Edition)
Tampa Bay Times
Archello
Departures
Hospitality Design
Gooood (China)
Artribune (Italy)
2017
Amy awarded a USF Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, which is one of "the most prestigious awards presented by the USF Alumni Association for the entire University of South Florida."