Zoe Wiseman Photography

One of my friends made a movie of the Fiat Lux opening reception. Thanks Greg!! You can see his YouTube stream here!

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YouTube Link to  Fiat Lux Movie

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I have always wanted to print a book of my work that I could be satisfied with. When I think of art books I envision each page to be a representation of a print that I would make. So many self publishers fall short of this goal and really don’t care about the quality of each page, but more so the quantity of books they can get through their printers which aren’t usually calibrated frequently. When the printers aren’t calibrated frequently this causes each book to be printed different from the next which could be one of the issues, but there are several. As you can see on my site I sell a book printed by Blurb. I’ll be taking that down and “discontinuing” sales of DISCONTINUde as the quality is not up to my standards. They missed my deep blacks in ALL of my prints. There is no detail. It’s just black. One of the prints I’m attaching in this posting … Achilles Knee (model, Stephanie Anne)… none of the trees to the left of the picture even show up in the book. They are just a black blob, as are each of the prints in the book. And that’s a shame because the size of the book is really cute and square (5×5) like my photos and I wanted it to be a nice little book one could keep. And many of my sepia toned images turned green. So, even if I used a little color to try and get their printers to behave in a manner that would look good for my prints, nothing worked. I even calibrated Photoshop to use their color calibration. It was really disappointing. This was also to be a book that they would showcase at an event so people could see the quality of their work. It was so disappointing for me that I told them they couldn’t showcase my book. I spent days and weeks putting that book together too.

Achilles Knee - ©2007 Zoe Wiseman - model: Stephanie Anne

A&I had printed a couple of my photographs in their books for group shows they had which I was a part of, and both of my photographs looked excellent inside of Nude X and I Spy With My Plastic Eye. When asked to do a show of my work and a book, I went into the book making process with a lot more optimism and was not sorry for it. Creating a book is a lot of work. It’s much more than just slapping an image on a page. It takes time to create a flow, work out where you need to put type, what font to use, which image should represent each theme. So when you spend that much effort to layout and creating an art piece with your photography and then paying for it, it’s so nice when it all comes out perfect. My book Fiat Lux is beautiful. And I’m not tooting my own horn or A&I’s because they gave me a show. I’m blunt… if something sucks I usually say so straight away. I’m not getting paid to say this either. They aren’t sponsoring me, I’m paying for my own publishing. They really do care about quality and it’s obvious that they all enjoy seeing a great product come from their lab. In fact, I’m sure they would be embarrassed if something subpar ever exited the building.

I’m very excited for people to see and purchase this book during my opening… and will not hesitate to add my signature to it because it is something I definitely approve of. When I held it for the first time yesterday, I turned into a giggly little girl. See you all next Thursday the 18th!

Fiat Lux - fine art nudes by zoe wiseman

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Fiat Lux - Fine Art Nudes by Zoe Wiseman

I will be exhibiting 10 years of fine art nudes at A&I Photographic in Hollywood. Opening reception is February 18, 2010, 7PM to 10PM. A&I will be producing a book for the show, as well as a special limited edition book titled Fiat Lux.

50% of all proceeds will benefit The Weingart Center. They help many people here in Los Angeles transform themselves from being homeless to productive members of our community. I lived in downtown Los Angeles for a year at 4th and Main Streets directly in the midst of skid row in a refurbished artist loft. The brutal inhumanity of it all affected me. I have decided to give 50% of all proceeds to an organization which focuses on transforming these lives and helping them get off the street.

A book signing, beer and wine bar, catered food and over 30 prints from several of her series. Models on the wall include; Ida Mae, Candace Nirvana, Jazmine Dominique, Natasha Kay, Marketa, Carlotta Champagne, Madame Bink, Muse, Kat Love, Ivory Flame, Stephanie Anne, Larva X, Rebecca Lawrence, Vassanta, Rei, Pash, Niecy Moss, Rebecca Fox, Jessamyne, Zinn Star, Soph and Maria Erickson.

A&I Photographic

933 N. Highland Ave.

Hollywood, CA 90038

Please come out and celebrate! To keep up to date – please subscribe to Zoe Wiseman’s personal website feed.

A&I has posted my exhibition online on their website. You can see all of my prints here. The Weingart Center also posted a wonderful webpage about my show on their website. I’m really looking forward to helping the homeless on Skid Row.

Coma - @2008 Zoe Wiseman - model: Ivory Flame

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On February 18, 2010 I’m having a solo showing of my work at A&I Photographic in Hollywood. I think I’ve picked out a few “THESE ABSOLUTELY MUST BE ON THE WALL” images. I’m also thinking of making little series of 5×7’s in boxes to sell at the opening reception for very reasonable prices. I’ll post some of those series here as the time draws nearer. But, these are absolutes.

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Before arriving to Australia I found this amazing park online during my searches for locations. I fell in love with it 6 months before our arrival. It’s basically dilapidated ruins of a Spanish estate. Jose Paronella started building this for the public in 1929 and it is a magical feast for the eyes.

The day we arrived, the major paper in the area, The Cairns Post, did a little fluff piece on all of the photographers and models who were there in the area. They interviewed me and my friends, Candace and Cameron – Cameron took the picture for the paper. It was fun. I had picked the paper up at the local news stand on the drive out to the park and read the article and smiled about it.

Whilst in the park there was a particular park ranger who kept eyeing us, especially me, looking me in they eyes and asking what we could possibly be doing standing in one spot for so long, as he was taking a tour group to the bat cave (literally). We just smiled and said we were admiring the sound of the water. And as the tour group passed – Ivory Flame and Stephanie Anne would disrobe as one kept look out for passersby while I photographed the other. (You definitely need more than one person in a place like this.) Our code word was Spider. If people were coming, Ivory Flame or Stephanie would yell “SPIDER.” And then the other would quickly get dressed. It makes for excitement! haha.

We went round with this through the park photographing in various spots as you can see in the photographs. When I took the last frame of Ivory Flame and said that was a roll and started to wind the film… I was crushed. I had gone through the entire park making pictures (so I thought) with no film in the camera. I almost cried. Ivory Flame was so sweet and said… “Oh Zoe, it’s OK… we can just do it again. Don’t worry.” Sincerely concerned and amazingly reassuring to me. So we went round the park again (haha) yelling “Spider” and setting up and such very quickly and made the pictures you see here.

We ran into this park ranger on several more stops he made. Once in the big trees where I photographed Stephanie (with only 2 frames left on the roll, not bad Stephanie!). Ivory Flame yelled “Spider” and Stephanie barely got her dress back on as the tour group with the ranger walked up. She was putting on her blouse over her dress and the ranger said, “Nearly busted.” And Stephanie said, “But not quite!” And with three girls giggling and smiling, what could he do but smile back?

The park has a little restaurant with a beautiful porch where you can sit and overlook the grounds. We grabbed some pies and coffee and sat to rest and eat a bit before driving on back to our spot at the beach. As we were eating the park ranger came up to us with the newspaper I had my picture in and asked, “Is this you?” And I smiled giggled and said yes that it was. So he asked for all our autographs and we all signed the newspaper for him.

And that’s the backstory.

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The very first model I actually found to work with me, other than my model friends from New Orleans, was Candace Nirvana. I have more photographs of her than any other model I’ve worked with. No offense to the other amazingly talented models I’ve taken photographs of, it’s just that I’ve always worked with Candace… from day one. I know how she moves, where to follow, and how to make her look good. Of course the other models I work with I find this click too, but they aren’t retiring. My work will not be the same without her.

We can get a shot even if there are only 4 frames in which to do it in. Or in this case… I had exactly 17 frames… and I got 17 good photographs. Photographs or affirmation of friendship… or 1/60th of a second permanently captured for eternity… or is it a knowing that makes it work? I don’t know. But I’m glad it works. I’m glad I have had her in my photographic life, but more so as a friend. I’ll really miss making photos with her. I’m certain I’m not the only one who feels this way. She’s given many photographers some of their best work. I salute her!

We made these images this October in Mission Beach, Australia. Normally I wouldn’t show each and every one, but I thought you’d all like to see what she can do in 17 frames.. or what we can do. I guess I’m there too. haha.

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Having fun with out of focus blur.

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One of my great friends from New Orleans, Audrey deLuxe, is featured in all of these images, which were all published in books and magazines; Passion and Desire by Edition Skylight and Fine Art Photo Magazine, I also published them in my self-published book DISCONTINUde. Audrey and I have been tight since the New Orleans Burlesque revival days and she was also one of my brides maids at my wedding. She regularly performs with Lucha VaVoom here in LA. So – go to one of her shows! It is the MOST entertaining thing to do in LA.

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DISCONTINUde -

I made this book on the eve of Polaroid’s collapse. As I work with Polaroid films for the majority of my work, I was really quite devastated when I learned they were discontinuing all product lines. I worked mainly with Polaroid Type 85 & 55. I have enough to see me through a few projects. Until then I’ll hope for the success of THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT. If you would like to purchase my book please click the badge below.

DISCONTINUde

Goodbye Polaroid

By Photography by Zoe…

Book Preview

These are some of the photographs inside.

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Marketa Belonoha 

Playboy cover model, represented in NYC and Milan. She was in town for a job and stopped by for a shoot and these are a few of the images that were made. It was a rainy day so I wanted to take advantage of the rain on my studio windows. 

Marketa is from the Eastern Block, Czech Republic… so these are a set of images called the Eastern Curtain. 

All images were made with Kodak Tri-X 400 Medium format Black and White film and a Rolleicord. 

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