honorable mention
LISA POWERS new zealandPhoto © LISA POWERS
title
"Simply Jane"
"Simply Jane" headshot done for a model's card.
I was just beginning to learn to shoot. I'm self-taught. Most professional fashion photographers were shooting with strobes but I couldn't afford strobes, so I learned to light with a single halogen lamp.
NIKON F2A 35mm film SLR camera, 50mm NIKKOR lens, Tri-X 35mm film, photographed in my New York studio.
Scanned with Imacon scanner.
I began learning photography when I quit my day-job as proof-reader in a small advertising agency for a job as the cleaner/janitor in a large commercial photo studio. My ambition was to become a professional freelance commercial photographer and I learned by watching the studio photographers shoot in the daytime, then shooting for myself with models at night. I learned more by artistic experimentation than technical correctness since I had no technical knowledge. This was in the film era, long before digital cameras.
For the next thirty years I was one of the few women working successfully in commercial photography, an industry which was/still is largely male-dominated.
In 2005 I did the “BIG SCARY” thing… I relocated with my four kitties from New York to New Zealand. It took a while for the dust and kitty litter to settle but when it did I took my photography in a new direction: Fine Art.
I don’t capture pictures, I create them from nothing in my studio… not as one would perceive them in reality but as imagined images. To do this, I build from an idea. Choosing the right model to direct is crucial. I am completely self-taught and perhaps because of that, I am fearless. I love mixing analogue film elements with digital effects.
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entry description
One of my early images..."Simply Jane" headshot done for a model's card.
I was just beginning to learn to shoot. I'm self-taught. Most professional fashion photographers were shooting with strobes but I couldn't afford strobes, so I learned to light with a single halogen lamp.
NIKON F2A 35mm film SLR camera, 50mm NIKKOR lens, Tri-X 35mm film, photographed in my New York studio.
Scanned with Imacon scanner.
about the photographer
I was born in the south of France. My family and I moved to New York when I was ten years old.I began learning photography when I quit my day-job as proof-reader in a small advertising agency for a job as the cleaner/janitor in a large commercial photo studio. My ambition was to become a professional freelance commercial photographer and I learned by watching the studio photographers shoot in the daytime, then shooting for myself with models at night. I learned more by artistic experimentation than technical correctness since I had no technical knowledge. This was in the film era, long before digital cameras.
For the next thirty years I was one of the few women working successfully in commercial photography, an industry which was/still is largely male-dominated.
In 2005 I did the “BIG SCARY” thing… I relocated with my four kitties from New York to New Zealand. It took a while for the dust and kitty litter to settle but when it did I took my photography in a new direction: Fine Art.
I don’t capture pictures, I create them from nothing in my studio… not as one would perceive them in reality but as imagined images. To do this, I build from an idea. Choosing the right model to direct is crucial. I am completely self-taught and perhaps because of that, I am fearless. I love mixing analogue film elements with digital effects.
back to gallery