Jennifer Loeber

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:39:00 +0000

Hey psst! I'm over here!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:54:00 +0000

My series Cruel Story of Youth is profiled on the always awesome Feature Shoot today!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:10:00 +0000

Sometimes a project picks you.

A few months ago I started swimming at our local Y. Most of my childhood was based around water activity of some sort and my parents enjoy telling stories about my 9 hour swimming marathons.

Despite the over-chlorination and some truly weirdo members (is it really necessary to stretch in front of the pool for 1/2 an hour while wearing a speedo one size too small to uh, contain , the family jewels?) these past few months have been nothing short of life changing. Its as if I have found the Me I had forgotten about during these forced landlubbing years.

My hair on the other hand looks like total shit- but I digress.

Several days ago my husband popped in a DVD he needed to watch for work and tells me that we first have to watch a 12 minute short film made by the subject of the feature we are about to watch- "Quarry" 1970, Dick Rogers. I sort of internally groan because short films seem to have a higher than average chance of sucking the will to live right out of your body. (Considering I am a person who has made a film that just barely squeaks by as feature length itself I feel bad about this but my eye rolling occurs almost involuntarily.)

Two minutes in and I am deeply and thoroughly in love. On the surface its a simple black and white film about the teenagers who hang out and swim at the Quincy quarry in Massachusetts, but its also a love letter of sorts to water.

I've been scribbling ideas in notebooks and checking train timetables for days in preparation for a project that has been staring me right in the face for months now.

I just needed to notice it.

NYPH '09

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:07:00 +0000

The New York Photo Festival this past weekend was sadly underwhelming. Regardless, I was introduced to two new (to me) photographers work I absolutely loved- why they were both shoved into poorly lit, hard to find corners is beyond me...

Tiina Itkonen- (make sure to click to enlarge)

Sirio Magnabosc-

Ladies First

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:28:00 +0000

Back when I first started dating my now husband, a film critic, I told him that I greatly preferred to read books and watch films written by and about women. Maybe it has something to do with being raised on Judy Blume and Bikini Kill but I have almost always just felt more drawn to the stories, secrets and rituals of women.

During college I buried myself in books about Lee Miller and Tina Modotti while feigning interest in Ansel Adams for the sake of my photography degree. At the time it seemed completely absurd to me to focus on old men working out the math to achieve the perfect color gray when Tina was running through Mexico photographing communist rallies and Lee was taking self portraits in Hitler's bathtub. I spent my breaks between classes pouring over Immediate Family and The Ballad of Sexual Dependency and learning that women, and the results of their gaze, completely fascinated me.

Being married to a film critic means I have access to things (never-before-seen films screened in our living room, dry chicken sliders at industry parties) that your average citizen does not. Being a photographer who gets to live with the equivalent of a video store on her bookshelves is something that is endlessly inspiring.

I started to get into the habit of mentally bookmarking different films directed by or about women that inspired me in some way. I keep of folder of these images on my computer for reference on light, composition, color palette etc to look at when I'm planning out a new series, working on a project or just having a case of the mean reds. It's a digital version of an inspiration board and something that has expanded my visual knowledge in ways I never could have imagined.

Some of my favorite captures from some of my favorite films:

Innocence, Lucile Hadzihalilovic

Picnic At Hanging Rock, Peter Weir

3 Women, Robert Altman

Fat Girl, Catherine Breillat

Battle In Heaven, Carlos Reygadas

Ladies and Gentleman...The Fabulous Stains, Lou Adler

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:46:00 +0000

Not only am I negligent with this site, I'm a bit late with this news but I'm very happy to be showing work at the SCOPE art fair this week as a part of the Amani Olu Projects (booth D01).

Go get yer art on!

Ends Wednesday!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:39:00 +0000

The hours are counting down to the end of the Emerging Photographers Auction presented by Daniel Cooney Fine Art! Get your bids in and snatch up a piece of art on the cheap.

The stock market is worthless so start hoarding your gold dubloons and artwork now!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:59:00 +0000

©Jennifer Loeber 2009

Starting 2009 off with a bang is the Emerging Artists Auction curated by Daniel Cooney featuring a bevy of amazing photography with a rock bottom reserve price.

I'm honored to be included in this fine group of artists with the above image from my Cruel Story of Youth series, thank you Daniel! I can't stop looking at Lucas Foglia and Nadine Rovner's images. Just beautiful- now get to bidding!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:50:00 +0000

An evil bout of sinus infection has gotten the better of me these past couple of weeks but with a little help from my friends at Aleve Cold & Sinus I fully intend on being upright and of sound mind this Thursday for the opening of BARE. I'm so very excited to be a part of this wonderful pool of talent!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:47:00 +0000

It's a bit hard to concentrate on anything other than the looming election but I'm happy to be in such fine company over at the new We Can't Paint gallery:

PROJECTS

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:02:00 +0000

I am a fan of Liz Kuball for many reasons (not least of which is the funny, snarky emails that ping pong between us) so it is with no surprise to me that she goes and comes up with a smart and awesome idea:

The Critical Mass Rejects Show

So take heed gentle readers, deadline is tomorrow and the show goes up on Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:05:00 +0000

Back when Atari was considered cutting edge and George Michael was famous for something other than committing lewd acts in public bathrooms, my Dad suggested I spend the summer at a camp the hippie minister at his Unitarian church ran each year. I was just twelve years old and had no idea how vastly my life was about to change.

I have tried and failed over the years to accurately describe my experiences at Rowe Camp. Being invited to live with and photograph the campers for several weeks this past summer finally allowed me to capture a sense of the place that means so much to me.

Cruel Story of Youth.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:20:00 +0000

Waiting for the talent show, 2008

The balloon experiment, 2008

The lost bird, 2008

Every person here is beautiful and wonderful, 2008
(click to enlarge)

The above images are a sampling from the new series I shot over the summer- I'm not even a quarter of the way done editing yet and I forsee a lot of late nights in my future but second to actually shooting, this is my favorite part of new work. Seeing the narrative that was formerly just in your head jump out at you as you scatter prints all over the floor and scribbling down thoughts for the statement in between subway stops... it just never ever fails to be totally exciting.

Back to the salt mines!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:31:00 +0000

Even though it appears that I've gone M.I.A- I am still very much here. Just veddy, veddy busy. I will be back with a whole new series and some other exciting news to share very soon!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:50:00 +0000

I don't think I quite expected my print sale to sell out so quickly!

While it certainly is tempting, it was most definitely a one time occurrence- my photo book project will be sent off to the printer later this week which is super exciting. I'll share more about that at a later date. For everyone who ordered a print- you will be contacted in September in regards to shipping.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:50:00 +0000

I shot the above photograph (thats a toy gun, do not fear) while I was at summer camp, age 17. It was a camp unlike any other in almost all ways. Sleeping, eating and participation in anything other than laying in the prone position were completely optional. There was no archery, swimming or sports. There was however- hours and hours of hanging out, shooting the shit, listening to every variety of punk imaginable, herbal tincture workshops, a nude beach, drawing in sketchbooks, Manic Panicking ones hair, creating art, creating music, playing in the darkroom, open air showers at midnight, crazy pranks involving the musical stylings of Robert Goulet, ridiculous amounts of laughing and learning how to trust yourself and be a person. The six summers I spent there were some of the most important of my life and very shortly I will be returning to that same camp to photograph a new series.

These photographs are some of the first images I shot, developed and printed on my own while at camp. They aren't very good and mostly just show that none of my friends had uninteresting hair but they represent a shift in my thinking and the nugget of an idea that maybe photography was where my life was headed.

I'll be offline while I'm there but will hopefully come back with bags of film to get excited about and maybe a good story or two. Even though I'm a married lady with an apartment and bills who brunches with friends and bitches about the crazy price of milk, part of me is still the girl hanging out shaving her head and photographing friends with the remnants of blue/green/pink/purple Manic Panic on her fingertips.

© all images jennifer loeber 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:18:00 +0000

Breaking news!

(otherwise known as- I finally was able to read a few blogs and take a break)

Tim Clark of the wonderful 1000 Words has written a lovely post on my Zeig Mal project- I couldn't be more flattered or excited, thank you Tim.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:09:00 +0000

Its been a string of long days in front of the computer editing my work, greasy leftover chinese and Wii bowling breaks. Today I finally get to leave my apartment for the first time in 4 days to photograph some more people for Zeig Mal and maybe just maybe throw back a cocktail or four...

The above photograph is a handball wall in a schoolyard a block from my apartment- every single time I pass it I get the urge to wail a hard tiny ball at it. Instead, I took its photograph. And now, weekend.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:18:00 +0000

A couple of years ago I started shooting a documentary film with two friends (one of whom is now my better half) without knowing any better. None of us had much if any film making experience. The idea started as a half kidding conversation in a parking lot one Fall day- two weeks later we started shooting.

As a photographer I had a plethora of still visual influences to guide me but I worried that it wouldn't translate to moving images. It took several months into shooting and talking about film as much as possible with my film critic husband for me to realize that the visual language of film and photography are two sides of a similar coin. The trick is getting it to flutter back and forth seamlessly.

Learning how to shoot a moving image using the same techniques of composition and context I used in my still imagery was one of the most difficult and important things to ever happen to my own growth as a photographer. I had wrongly assumed it would entail re-training my brain to think just in terms of movement when what it really did is simply bridge a gap- the ability to invoke the quietness of thought within a moving image or convey a sense of life within a still one. It felt a bit like a floodgate had opened in my thought processes.

There are some filmmakers that very obviously speak to photographers and the language of still photography, Werner Herzog, Ulrich Seidel and Errol Morris to name just a few. Each of these artists influence can be seen in our film. The importance of heading to the Strand to flip through photo books for a whole afternoon can't be underestimated- but neither can staying up all night to watch Vernon Florida, Fitzcarraldo, Dog Days or Frederick Wisemans Model. I learned about the great importance of film within my own photography through making this documentary and all its subsequent learning curves.

Early on I decided that I would be shooting a series in conjunction with filming- an experience that re-ignited my love of photography, changed the way I approach making images and led to leaving my life as a photo editor to return to being a photographer.

I also turned that series into a book and its available via the always awesome Blurb:

F I S H K I L L

Photographs by Jen...

Book Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:51:00 +0000

Almost as soon as we hit the mid-Cape highway I felt my shoulders relax involuntarily and by the time I had scarfed back a burger at a roadside shack I had nearly forgotten what city life was like. A small sampling of an assignment and mini book I am putting together to send out to several editors at the end of the summer.

Now if only I could include scratch and sniff for the smell of low tide in the tidal flats, fried clams at lunch and cool blue water at the lake...

Click each image for bigger (and better).

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Eight rolls are headed to the lab for drop off tomorrow- I'm trying to keep the vacation hangover at bay by remembering the sound of the lake lapping at the shore on this humid urban afternooon...

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:10:00 +0000

While sitting in my dentists office waiting for some early morning pain infliction I flipped through a recent New York Magazine. I am consistently impressed with the photography they use and regularly have daydreams about seeing my own work in its glossy pages.

The article Punk Like Them struck a chord with me, both in its use of photography and its subject matter. I spent a good ten minutes peering closely at Rona Yefman's images trying to figure out if all or only some were shot with a Holga and another ten quietly wondering if I could have done better.

Without swerving too far down memory lane I can only say that Punk, St. Marks Place and the Lower East Side in New York City were once a very large part of my life and huge influence on my work. To this day the only truly dependable pair of boots I own are a beat-up decade old pair of 10 hole oxblood Doc Martens- I'm definitely not getting that kind of longevity out of Marc Jacobs ballerina flats.

I freely admit to pangs of deep plaid-n-mohawked longing to have shot that particular assignment. Not only because of the above stated daydreams but because it would have offered the chance to re-visit something both totally familiar and now, a decade later in my case, so so unfamiliar. A fantastic collision of my adult world and my teenage one, on the very spot it originated.

I'm not sure whether I would have mentioned my own history and connection to the subjects I was photographing had that been my assignment. I may have just retraced the steps of my old haunts with them, photographing, remembering and watching it all unfold for a new set of kids.

Punk's not dead.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:34:00 +0000

In six short weeks I will be taking leave of Brooklyn to go live in the mountains and shoot a new series on teenagers.

As a born and raised city girl (New York City to be exact) I have come to love the idea of frolicing in nature but my inborn tendency to be suspicious of anything not coated in concrete and available for takeout is a hard habit to shake. I find the most difficult thing to get used to is the intense (one might say evil) nighttime quiet of the forest. It allows a certain amount of uninterrupted introspection but in my case it also enables my overactive brain to convince me that I can actually hear my own blood squeezing through my veins. Without the aid of my city generated white noise machine- 6am garbage trucks, salsa music played out of car trunks and various drug deals occurring in broad daylight- I am nothing more than a heaving mass of internal hysteria. In a sleeping bag.

Despite all this (and don't even get me started on my mass murderers love the woods theory) I am ridiculously excited. I will miss the husband like crazy and will have to quell the idea that while there I will be surrounded by advancing psychopaths just waiting for me to drift off to the sound of my own vein blood...

Before my adventure with woodland creatures begins, I'll be here in Brooklyn, shooting up a storm for another project, trying to get hired for editorial work (hire me!) and sharing the odds and ends on here.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Loeber) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:17:00 +0000

A fresh start coming soon!