Zoe Wiseman Photography

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.

Enjoy some of my new work with Floofie. She rocks.

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.

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!

Orizon Nouvo

The book my image “Solar Energy” was published in has now been released by 1x.com. 205 different photographers with one photo each are all included inside this collective. You can purchase a copy by going to http://1x.com/photobook

Jazmine Dominique is the beautiful model in the photo.

Solar Energy - @2007 Zoe Wiseman - Model: Jazmine Dominique

I’ve spent a lot of time in the desert. It’s fun to walk around and see pictures, make pictures and be away from society. It’s quiet. Wind and critters are all you can hear. It’s always nice working with someone who likes to look for pictures too. Meghan’s like that. No jabbering on, just looking with me. It helped tremendously when she saw a Manzanita bush and commented on how cool it looked. I wouldn’t have paid it any attention. I did though because I’ve learned to listen to what I like to call “desert magic.” Subtle hints that lead you to something profound or magical. Her mention of the manzanita bush was that. There was a dragon there in the shadows.

The Dragon - @2010 Zoe Wiseman - model: Meghan Claire