ZoE Photo

Category: Rambling

  • Sunkissed 85, and my year in life.

    Sunkissed 85, and my year in life.

    In April 2022, I signed a book deal and the exciting process of editing, designing and prepping for a launch (that still hasn’t come yet), commenced.

    During the designing process in August, after a yearly eye exam and a retinal scan, my eye doctor sent me to the emergency room for an MRI and I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had a craniotomy within a week after that appointment. This set me back quite a bit with the book, as anyone would expect, but the good news is as of my last MRI this August 2023, my doctor says that I AM CURED! Thank you to the Cedars Sinai Neurology Department, Dr. Jenny Parks (my eye doc), and my neurosurgeon, Dr. John Yu… and every single beautiful person I came in contact with at Cedars, especially Desiree, my nurse. Also, whoever shaved my head so that I could cover the incision and not scare the children. Bride of Frankenstein, maybe? I took this as I was recovering and had a very swollen face.

    Not only did I have to have brain surgery, but my yearly fine art retreat was already scheduled. I made it there, 2 1/2 weeks after surgery (I must be mad). We laughed, and celebrated and it was such a joyous occasion. A bit after that I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame celebration for the 2020 Nine Inch Nails induction that my husband and I were unable to attend due to Covid, once things started opening up again the RRHF scheduled the Nine Inch Nails event, and he got back on stage with them and all the former bandmates in Cleveland. A week after that there was a wedding! So right after surgery it was just go go go go go and I didn’t stop. Normally people sit down and have some rest. It was good for me. September and October totally occupied with activity.

    In December, I received notice that the publisher I signed my book deal with sold the company. So then I realized what all the hold up was with my book. More on this later…

    Skip forward to February, no books in hand, but my work exhibited in the LA ART Show (I actually posted about it <<), which was an eye popping glory of color and pop art, and me with my photography wall. Strange and wonderful all at once. I loved being part of that with Photo Independent. The Virtual show is still online there if you would like to see my two features, scroll down that page, it’s alphabetical so I’m last. Then immediately after LA ART Show I started preparing for the MIA Photo Fair in Milan, Italy. Scroll through the slide show below.

    Italy was one of the most amazing things I did all year. Milan was special. Meeting people who understood my work and knew what solarization was without the need to explain my process was so incredible. Exhibiting my work there was a dream come true. It is where I decided my life goals when I was 16 years old. To come full circle back to the place where the spark began, well, I’m just happy that brain tumor didn’t do me in. I left 5 of my pieces in Italy, so part of me is there now. I also got to spend a couple of days in Venice and hit the Lee Miller/Man Ray exhibition.

    April to today has been a busy bundle of taking care of aging parents and trying to get this book launch happening, some brilliant shooting with models who stopped in to participate and a tragic death of my friend, Jillian Ann. So I am here trying to process the day (a year ago) I was told I wasn’t going to die with all of the non-stop that has been going on, and the never ending phone calls about our friend, Jillian who was supposed to be at my home right now staying with me. Plans sometimes cannot be kept.

    Jillian and I in one of many taxis we shared. This one in Australia. I will miss her.

    Before the strange ending of a non-stop year I did a soft launch of my book. I have 5 limited edition prints with a book left available. Until I hear from Vedere Press, that’s what we have. I bent over and bought all my books and 1/2 of them are at a distribution warehouse, waiting. I’m so very impatient about things now and I’m doing my best to breathe and let the process unfold. If it doesn’t, I’ll just do it all myself. At least I can count on me.

    I am waiting to launch. Until then, Sunkissed85.com is where you can snag the last 5 limited edition prints with my book. This is the print, and this is the book.

    I should probably use this blog more often instead of attempting to cram an entire year into one post.

    One year, hair is growing back and no more swollen face. It all worked out.
  • First shoot of 2022

    First shoot of 2022

    I have been able to have three shoots during this awful pandemic. Two in my studio where I could control my environment and the last one in Palm Springs where they require vaccine proof to enter businesses and restaurants. And that’s just how it’s going to have to go for me until everyone does their duty to society.

    Here is a couple from Palm Springs with Eva. There is a hotel I like to stay at there that always puts me in a funky room full of oddities and modernism. Then there’s the desert just a foot step away which provides some natural influence.

    So happy Eva hit me up to go on a little shooting adventure! It was just what I needed, including that hotel breakfast. Memories of being there singing about purple socks with Stephanie Anne, about 10 years ago, was a nice flashback too.

    Wash your hands! Stay Safe! Get vaccinated and come work with me. 🙂

    © 2022 Zoe Wiseman ~ Model: Eva Palm Springs accentuated
    Milk Bar ~ © 2022 Zoe Wiseman ~ Model: Eva
    © 2022 Zoe Wiseman ~ Model: Eva Palm Springs accentuated
    © 2022 Zoe Wiseman ~ Model: Eva
  • My protest image published twice

    My protest image published twice

    Back when Darrel Issa was holding meetings about birth control pills in congressional hearings looking at a long “witness” table full of Catholic Priests who were there to complain that Catholic businesses would have to include birth control coverage in their insurance policies for their employees, and Sandra Fluke became a punching bag for the right wing loons, I started getting really pissed off about people treating my body and other women’s bodies as if they were objects to be controlled by the government and by religious ideologies. So I had Carlotta Champagne and Titania Lynn come over to make some images. I was just GRRRRR angry. I still am.

    Titania has this amazing writing technique (she’s quite full of artistic talent herself) so she wrote the placards for the images. We did quite a few images but one shot stood out and resonated to lots of people, men and women, on the internet. It went everywhere. I saw that some people had photoshopped out my english text and replaced it with Spanish, French, German and even Arabic.

    My Ovaries Are Not Church Property in Arabic
    My Ovaries Are Not Church Property in Arabic

     

    I saw it first in Arabic when Buchet&Chastel publishers emailed me asking if I would be keen to publish the image in a book on the Tunisian uprisings. So I searched for it in Arabic and found that it had been shared during the chaos of the revolutions by hundreds of thousands of women online. It made me happy and hopeful for them. So, this was published in the book Insurrections Arabes by Smaïn Laacher.

     

    Insurrections Arabes by Smaïn Laacher
    Insurrections Arabes by Smaïn Laacher

    It even graced the front page of Reddit – full of geeky male dudes (right on guys!). I know there are some ladies there, but it’s really predominately male.

     

    Fast forward to yesterday when I received my copy of the next publication it was published in. Humanist Perspectives. This is a great magazine out of Canada which deals specifically with Humanism. As a Humanist myself I was quite pleased to be included in a magazine supporting the only belief system I relate to in any way.

    humanist perspectives
    humanist perspectives

    I love the quote they included around the image: “One of my fantasies is that next Sunday not one single woman, in any country of the world, will go to church. If women simply stop giving our time and energy to the institutions that oppress, they would have to cease to do so.” ~ Sonia Johnson, American feminist, activist and excommunicated Mormon

    So while Canada and France are standing up for women in their own ways, back here in the United States women are getting forced government vaginal probes and some women in Texas are fed up…  and over in North Carolina they are having some problems! And Virginia and Wisconsin and Texas and Mississippi and North Dakota and and and and and. And while my image was specifically about BIRTH CONTROL PILLS because they were trying to ban insurance companies from covering that – hands off our bodies. Seriously. Just stop legislating laws to govern a woman’s right to control every aspect of her body. We are not chattel. We are women. And ladies who are reading… If you don’t vote in 2014 (you know for your state and local congressional stuff),  don’t bitch when all of a sudden you find out it’s illegal for you to get an I.U.D. to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. Please, don’t be shocked when women start dying because they shouldn’t have carried their babies to term due to other health conditions.  Because we are all Savita. Every one of us. When one woman is denied life due to religious ideologies, we all are. Until all women are free from government control, we are all under government control. Civil rights are a woman’s issue too.

     

     

  • Let’s be BLUNT

    Today is International Woman’s Day

    In case you haven’t been paying attention there have been over 1100 pieces of legislation introduced to federal and state legislatures over the past year which severely impact women’s health. And if you’ve been following me on twitter, you’ve probably seen my disdain for the jackasses who are responsible. And please ignore the fat man with the golden microphone (is that his golden penis phallic fetish?), he isn’t the one responsible for creating bills designed to discriminate against women. The only thing he does is throw white trash easily mutable fly over’s into a hate frenzy – and yeah, well he calls women sluts. But so what? Slut shaming is so 1965. I can’t remember a time when I felt ashamed when someone called me a slut. It usually made me laugh myself silly. But hey, I spent 10 years with a rock band listening to their hilarity, so I have thick skin. And I’m probably a little more harsh than even they were sometimes. I’m impervious.

    What myself and the rest of the 51% of the population (women) aren’t impervious to is the legislation being introduced into state and federal legislatures. It is infuriating. These tiny little boys who are playing politics with my body need to find a new job. They should be censured for discrimination against a group of people. They should be charged with hate crimes against women. But that’s just how I feel about it. The Catholic Church should lose their tax exempt status for this (< click) and Darrell Issa needs to be sent packing. He is a disgrace to my state. I think people are afraid to blame the one entity responsible for this war on women, the Catholic Church. They have displaced their rage on to a fat man with a golden microphone. Criticizing a church isn’t criticizing a god. Their ego wants you to think that, but it’s perfectly OK to be angry at the church. Jesus was. (or so the scripture tells us) I’m rambling, aren’t I? Sorry, I’m really upset.

    I realize when it comes to women’s health and a woman’s anatomy, most men are baffled. It’s no wonder a group of men from the Catholic Church wouldn’t understand the many uses of birth control pills. Nor would they realize that they actually help women conceive children. I don’t think the nuns really talk to them about these things, and mixing with women really isn’t their thing. So it’s no surprise to see an all male panel discussing religious freedom and being so stringent to a false belief that they won’t even allow a woman to speak – thus creating a national stir on the issue and turning Sandra Fluke into the poster child for “government handouts of birth control pills” which is a complete falsification.  Ladies and Gentlemen – we have our Martyr! This is so fucking high school bully syndrome. What are women supposed to do who pay for insurance plans, prescription drug coverage and a list of other health related things to do when they have an ovarian cyst eruption that could have been prevented by taking a pill that their insurance should pay for? This is childish. The only people who should feel shamed are the Catholic Bishops and Darrell Issa. Wasn’t Jesus into healing the sick? This is elementary my dear Watson!

    THEN! after this started up this backwoods bigot from Missouri is jumping on the bandwagon and using women’s bodies to fight against the Affordable Care Act which prevents insurance companies from treating women as pre-existing conditions.  His little friend in Florida, Mark Rubio, is in cahoots with him.  Click on the links and read their dribbly diatribes. The Blunt Amendment, in essence, would allow for any company large or small to refuse to pay for any medicine or medical treatment based upon their moral beliefs. Thus, allowing your boss to have dictatorship over your health care. And not just women’s health care, gentlemen. Yours too. So if you think this is just about women (which it was designed to be but written slyly to wink wink at their good ‘ole boys) you’re missing the point and you haven’t READ THE BILL. 

    Women, if you don’t vote things are going to get very taliban(y). Everyone else – please educate yourselves about the many uses of birth control pills.

    ***all words are my own***

    But this is by Carl Sagan:

    “How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant’? Instead they say, ‘No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.’ A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.”

    So, I made some images. And they are free to share all over the internet if you want to grab them and post them everywhere. Just as long as you aren’t making a profit from it. Not for hardcopy publishing rights though. I retain those. 

    Let’s be BLUNT! BE BLUNT EVERYWHERE!!!! with credit please.

     

     

     

     

  • Amazing Twitter Moment

    I’m a cynic. I can’t help it. The country is being run by people who want to hurt poor people and the banks aren’t giving home owners a break when they find themselves underwater on their mortgage, the 405 is getting ready to shut down, it’s going to be Autopocolypse and people are talking about cats like they used to in medieval times. And tonight when I updated my wordpress site to 3.2 it died. It disappeared. I cried to Twitter about the White Screen of Death. I cry to twitter about a lot of things… but tonight this stranger came out of no where and told me he’d help me… and he fixed my site! And I have this new profound sense of humanity right now thinking about some selfless individual just deciding to help someone like that. It’s so rare in these times! Funny that it was the twitter plug-in that was the problem and caused my site to do that upon upgrading… and twitter came through with this awesome person in return. http://www.twitter.com/ZKWC follow me, maybe I can repay the favor given to me.  Pay it forward… who said that? And follow Nacin… he rocks! http://www.twitter.com/nacin

     

  • Reflections of 2010

    Thank you to everyone who played a part in making 2010 a special year for me. It was filled with happy moments and great picture making. Trips to Australia, New Orleans, New England and all over my home state of California. Book publishings, gallery exhibitions, magazine features, working with amazing models and learning quite a bit and growing quite a bit.

    A really special thank you to all the people at A&I. The exhibitions that I participated in were so much fun and I met so many wonderful people. It’s nice being part of a beautiful photo community in the city where I live. Thank you for allowing me to put on such a big solo exhibition too!

    Australia. I love you. I love your people. I love your land. I want to throw a rope around the tail hitch of the plane each time I leave and drag you back to California with me. I do. I do! I hope all of you in Queensland are staying somewhat dry right now. What a flood! Sorry.

    Thank you to all the collectors who purchased my work this year. While book and magazine publishings really make one happy, nothing makes someone happier than when someone likes the work so much that they buy it and hang it on their wall. Pure happiness!

    Thank you to American Photo for making me their centerfold this July! What a hoot! 10 years later this photo is still being published. Love that.

    Thank you very much to all the models who worked with me this year. I hope the work we did reaches the pages of more books and magazines in the future. You’ll be the first to know!

    Thank you to Feierbend Unique Books, 1x, Sunset Studios and A&I for all the publishing and exhibits!

    And speaking at Apple about iPhone photography! Geek moment to remember!

    And thank you to all the people who have touched me personally this year. Who have helped me see the world a bit more positively and shared my love of the earth, sky and water. Made me laugh, made me cry, and supported me in ways that gave me that special boost to carry on. I love you all.

    Enjoy a photo from what will be remembered as a very amazing year! Bring on 2011!! Happy New Year!

     

  • The Booking Office

    Mid-4AM ramblings and strung out on coffee

    Listening to Metalocolypse and wondering where and why time slips away

    feeling that 10 minutes of orange that happens every night in california and wondering why sleep at all?

    you could have another coffee and keep going through whatever geek timebomb you are creating now

    or scrap it all and forget about that sliver of creativity you forgot to write down

    some things left over from the fog of humidity i used to live in – this city just isn’t the same, people sleep and any celebrating and you might have a sideways glance wondering who put the happy in your drink

    but you’re always sober and you still have more fun

    and those dregs of kindredness fall off the cliff into the pacific and you realize that there is no us there is only me and that’s how they think here

    popularity breeds contempt, one of boy george’s more genius phrases, and it’s true and you’re also true

    i miss mom-n-thems and red beans on monday

    happy monday

  • My Book is finished

    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.

    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. 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.

  • Happy 2010, so long 2009…

    2009 was rather good to me. I have a lot of things to be thankful for, and there are a lot of people out there I send my love to and thanks. You all know who you are… and there are so many of you I don’t think I could begin to name each one of you or I would be here till next year! Yes… I’m that thankful and that graciously overjoyed that you are all in my life.

    In these troubled times of economic crisis and the loss of work of so many people around the world, 2010 really should be a time to come together and stand by one another in order to better all of our lives. I’ve been trying to do my part within the art community by building bridges and creating opportunities for not only myself, but for all the friends who share my love of photography. I was able to do this several times in 2009. I feel honored to have contributed to connecting people and hopefully leaving them with a bright spot when they look back upon the year in reflection.

    January 2009 started out working with the Palm Springs Photo Festival producing all the workshops and organizing all of those days. Finding talent and assistants and working with some quite amazing photographers helping them get their classes off without a hitch. I got to meet some of my favorite photographers, Greg Gorman, Steve McCurry and Duane Michals and help them produce an outstanding workshop program for their students. It wasn’t all fun and games at times because it was a lot of work, but it was a great experience that I’ll always look back on and smile at. A bright spot.

    I launched ARTnudes Network in June – A Networking/blogging website for models, photographers, painters, sculptures and sketchers – Mostly fine art nude photography, but all artists are welcome to jump in as long as it’s art related. I’ve had this concept on hold for so many years and it is amazing to finally get it going and see so many people connecting with each other. There are still many things to do with it and it will be done! It’s intended for serious artists, and artists who want to be serious.

    In August my best friend, brides maid, and always epic photographically model (that was a mouth full) – Ida Mae, gave birth to a baby boy. I am so happy for her!!! We were planning on another maternity shoot before she gave birth two days before she went into labor a month early. What a beautiful moment of 2009. I got to see her in November when I was staying in Hanover, New Hampshire over Thanksgiving. Brief but special. It was great seeing her in her element.

    In October I had a most excellent vacation to Australia with several of my friends from Community Zoe. I’ve written quite a bit about it on this site, but I can’t begin to describe the amazing time that was had. It was perfect. The best one yet. Might have to do it again! This is definitely a bright spot – but more like an entire sun ray – or if you would look at a pie chart this would take over about 40% of the pie. At least. So, super sunny spot. Maybe I should create a pie chart with the amount of bright spots and relative percentage of impact they had on me over the year. hmm.

    In September my modeling work was hanging in two galleries at the same time. In Melbourne, Australia in the work of Michael Marlborough and in Charlotte, North Carolina in the work of Bryce Lankard. Two of my best friends and they both had gallery shows at the same time. Kind of cool. And my photography work was published in the book 210 Photographers – 1×2. That three thing. Sunny.

    October was Australia, but more of my work was also published in the book NUDES Indexx II . Then the newspaper clip about all of us in the Cairns’ Post.

    Once returning from Australia I helped Jeff Dunas get his Palm Springs Photo Festival community site up and running, then it was a gallery show at A&I called I Spy With My Plastic Eye, and another book publishing that was produced for the show. The print that I made for the show has sold too, so bonus! It all benefitted WeSpark – a non-profit organization that provides free support for cancer patients. It makes me feel good that my art was benefitting such an important cause and thank you to A&I, Astor Morgan and Baret Lepejian for having me be a part of such a cool event!

    I attended the BMI Awards to watch my husband receive his 8th BMI Crystal Statue @ the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the one from Pretty Woman. You never know who will be at these award ceremonies. One year we were sitting at a table next to Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys and another time Paul Anka and Mark Mothersbaugh from DEVO and another time the family members from the late Howling Wolf. It’s great people watching, good food, and a great celebration for all the recording artists that BMI represents. And concerning copyright, I don’t know of another organization that fights for the rights of artists in the way they do. If only photographers, painters and other artists had something similar. I learn a lot each time I go. And it’s always a proud moment watching my husband get an award.

    In December I got a wonderful opportunity to have a solo showing of my nudes @ A&I in Hollywood. I’ll be producing a book and showing about 40 – 50 of my prints. The opening reception will be on February 18, 2010. (my fingers still want to type 2009, eeek, have to get used to that!) So, I’ve been in editing mode from the day I found out until now. Excluding the lovely time I spent in Kauai, Hawaii during the Holidays. I think I’ll be making Hawaii a December ritual

    Thank you to all who have come into my life, I’ve learned many things from all of you. If you stand in the light, the shadows look prettier. And if we can all come together for good in 2010 maybe the shadows won’t feel so forgotten or “insert random thought of wisdom here.” I think all of us can make it brighter. I’ll do my best.

    Kauai