Zoe Wiseman Photography

I love working with my Diana. When I started shooting as a photographer I bought a Holga on the advice of Carlton Mickle. I soon learned about the toy camera junkies when Holga’s only cost $9.99. They had stopped production of the Diana camera by the time I started photography so I kept my eye out for people selling theirs and got lucky when Susan Burnstine sold hers to me. Now Holga’s cost upwards of $75.00 and so do Diana’s now that they’re making them again. I’m glad people are into toy cameras now, and I’m glad I bought mine when they weren’t this expensive. I know compared to other cameras they don’t seem so costly, but my head shaking commences when I see the price tags these days. At least they last longer than a D700. I’ve used my first Holga for 15 years now. Not bad for a “toy.” The Ilford PanF works awesome too.

Sara Liz @saraliz stopped by about a week ago and we played with light and a Rolleicord and a Nikon FM.

Enjoy.

Enjoy some photos with Rei. 35mm Film and a couple of Lensbabies too.

Just a few images from our last picture making fun. Just a Nikon FM and my new Composer Pro Lensbaby (so fun!) and some Kodak Tri-X 400. And an interesting studio set up. Plus, some Ilford 50 with my Rollei (my fave).

Enjoy.

Title, yeah, I’m a Prince fan. And a Zinn fan! This is why:

I never shoot 6 rolls of film! ha. Had no idea there was color film (Kodak Portra) in my Nikon FM, but sort of like it. All the rest, Ilford panF 50, Ilford Delta 400 and Fuji Neopan 400 with my Rollei. I love my Rollei.

I have the craziest dreams. If only I could record them so I could play them back for everyone to gasp at. The latest insanity during my sleep was marrying George W. Bush. I’m not kidding. I woke up in tears, literally sobbing and looking at my husband and asking him why he didn’t step in and stop that. Here is the dream:

My real husband and I were traveling to Texas via the swamps and bayous of Louisiana. We had to dodge swamp gas, swamp flames and alligators. We made it out into the gulf only to be capsized and our boat obliterated. For some reason I knew of a place under water where they kept a submarine, so we swam underwater and made it into the sub. Swimming underwater dodging the oil spill and pissed off dolphins. One of the dolphins tried to blame me for the spill and I had to have a conversation with him to explain that it was our screwed up government up here on the dry part that enabled it and that I had nothing to do with it and I was just trying to swim to safety, would the dolphin help us? So my real husband and I caught hold of the dolphins fin and it took us to the sub. WTF? right? But it doesn’t end there… in the sub there were these crazy totalitarians that put my husband in a cell and took me to the captain.

This captain called GWB on the phone and told him that he captured me. Next thing I know I’m at the Alamo (the freaking Alamo!) preparing to marry him. I’m on a balcony talking with my real husband begging him to protect me from these monsters, but he looks the other way as I see how badly they’ve beaten him. Then I’m standing at the alter and GWB prepares to put the ring on my finger but I haven’t taken off my real wedding ring and I struggle to take it off and handed it to my mother. Then I woke up sobbing with my cat and my husband looking over me asking me what could be so troubling in my dream. I said that he made me marry George Bush and he had a good laugh.

Dreams are insane. Dreams are monkey brains after they’ve been stung by a scorpion. In ode to my dreams, here are some images I made with my dreams as inspiration. I hope I’m not the only one who has crazy dreams.

There was a time when I was a fashion model when perfection was forced and instilled into every one of my brain cells that I was unable to appreciate flaws. Especially when it came to photography, because body image was so important back then, the camera had to perfect perfection even more. You could have been a perfectly poised woman with flawless skin and a perfect figure, but the camera had to make you even more flawless and perfect. A hyper sense of perfection. And that was when all photographers shot film. Fast forward to today and the hyper-perfection is on some other trip. I look at photos now and the models look like plastic dolls. They have no hips. No breasts. They are androgynous drones chiseled with photoshop to be made into unreal versions of humanity. I find myself searching for imperfection because of it. Even if I’m photographing someone with a perfect body.

It really doesn’t matter how perfect someone’s body is in the world of art, but I see fashion influencing artists. I see photographic artists utilizing the hyperreal tools of the fashion industry in order to perfect their images. While I would never publish a photograph of a woman in a compromising view to make her seem less ideal, I want her to look good, I’m also not going to do something to compromise my vision for my own art to satisfy the status quo. I love the imperfections in film. I adore freaking out my Polaroid negatives, scratches, solarization, funky borders… they allow me to understand LIGHT what it does, how it feels. The luxury of shadows and the mystery it emboldens.

I can thank the fashion industry for shunning my eyes from their unrealistic version of woman. When I see plastic faces with no pores, I can look in the mirror and tell myself that I’m beautiful for not being a plastic doll. And I can view the art I create and be refreshed that it looks nothing like anything I see in a fashion magazine. I left fashion for a reason.

Enjoy some Polaroids and some Rollei photos I shot of model, Stephanie Anne last month.

Please check out this really cool new online magazine in PDF format! PHmagazine. They’ve featured some of my nudes in Issue #7 of Audrey DeLuxe, Carlotta Champagne, Candace Nirvana, Madame Bink, Rei, Sara Liz and Rebecca Lawrence. Most of the work was all shot in Australia in 2009 and 2010 and some in California. It’s nice to have new work published. I’ve included screen shots here, but you can go to their website and download the PDF file. Read it on your iPhone or iPad by sending it to iBooks or you can just read the PDF normally without sending it to iBooks… I need an app called iZoe or something. They don’t like nudes though! Come on Apple! jeesh. Make sure you check out all the previous issues too, there are some really amazing photographers featured in the past issues. Great Street Photography, landscapes, nudes, portraits… lovely stuff. You’ll like it!

Truly. Candace is a ridiculously great model. I know it takes two so I’m not too humble not to pat myself on the back, but it’s pretty insane when you can’t decide what image should be THE ONE from a roll of film. This is from 1/2 hours work. I’m almost terrified to work for longer for fear the decision making will prove to be that much more intense. But after all these years of working with Candace I never get tired of seeing the results. What’s YOUR favorite?

So, it’s the beginning of the year. 2011. (Honestly I miss the 90s. They seemed a bit more carefree.) I guess it’s time to reflect upon what I feel are my best images from 2010. Ansel Adam’s said that if he made 12 good images in a year, it was a good year. I kind of feel the same way. Though sometimes it’s really hard to edit.

The internet has really killed the concept of editing. And I think that’s one of the drawbacks of the web. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a photographers website and just kind of got bored because they’ve put up 20 different images from the same shoot, or sometimes even MORE. Models are even worse when editing themselves. Honestly, if you have 10 great images, that’s all you really need. I say this, not to bitch, but to help. And I’m even guilty of it sometimes. I’ll admit it. The internet makes it easy just to digitally edit, throw EVERYTHING up there, and leave it to the audience to decide what image is THE ONE. But… when you’re trying to sell your work, you need to make it easier for the person interested in it to decide. How can they if they are faced with 1000 images on your website? Let’s face it, their eyes gloss over.

It used to be that one wasn’t able to show their work to as many people. They had to rely on books, magazines and gallery exhibitions in order to get their work out there. So, they really had to edit themselves down. Plus, there wasn’t digital photography so not as many images were being made. I’ve never been one to want MORE… I’ve only wanted ONE GOOD IMAGE from a shoot. Sometimes I’m lucky and every frame I expose is good. But, even in these situations, even when you don’t realize it sometimes, there really is only ONE image that stands out. And that would be the one you would send to be published, mounted on a wall or selected for purchase by a collector. There’s too much of this mentality that you must show it all. Frankly, almost all of it is boring and repetitive. So are photographers portfolios who only work with one model. So are models who only do one pose … over and over and over again. Themes are amazing! Don’t misunderstand my thoughts here. But, unless you are photographing a storyboard (a procession of photographs that tell a story) pick only one. Don’t be afraid to stand out on a ledge and throw the images off a cliff. And don’t hoard your work… by hoarding I mean not being able to let go of an image purely for emotional or obsessive reasons. Step back from your work and be your own harshest critic.

Or, make a portfolio that will only show your best work. Getting rid of the “modeling sets” mentality. That’s only for cheesy websites like Zivity or pay sites made for guys to jack off too. Seriously. Sorry, but I really don’t want someone jacking off to any of my work. OMG I’m so harsh right now, but it’s the truth and you know it is. Send collectors, publishers and gallery reps to your main portfolio with your best work. Try doing 12 for each year. Date each folder that way if you wish. Those in the business will know what you’re doing and why. They know who Ansel is and what he said. If you have other people who are interested in seeing all of your work, I think that’s kind of what a blog is for these days. You get to have a portfolio section, plus blog posts from your years of modeling or photographing. A photographic diary of sorts. A progression. But, those just starting out should delete old blog posts that make their work seem amateurish. Everyone starts somewhere, and that’s OK! That’s amazing! But, don’t leave those “starting out” images up there on the web for people to gasp at after you’ve become the most awesome photographer that you are today. Get rid of them. Hide them. Leave them only for yourself to remember that you too were once a newb that didn’t know what you were doing. Then maybe you’ll help someone else become better when you remember where you came from.

So anyway… These are my favorite 12 from the year 2010.  I hope someone got something out of that diatribe up there ^^^

Love,

Z