the six questions featuring Jenifer Altman

Uppercase magazine has recently published a book called "Jen 11" featuring the work of 11 talented artists named Jennifer. And I couldn't help but notice with a sense of awe that some of my favorite photographers and writers are indeed, named Jennifer. Last month I shared with you the work and thoughts of Jennifer Causey of Simply Photo. Today I give you another wonderful photographer I constantly look up to, someone whose sense of composition and light swings back and forth between an innate ability to capture beauty in her daily life and pure genius. Someone who graciously took time amidst her adventures to answer our SS interview, and is also named Jennifer. Today, I give you Jenifer Altman.

1. What's the story behind this photo? 

It was our last weekend in Italy.  We were flying out of Pisa and scheduled the day so that we would have some time to see the city before our flight the following morning. We followed the traffic of tourists to the leaning tower - ate what turned out to be the worst lunch of the entire trip and were beyond disappointed that the trip ended on such a lackluster note.  In a last effort, we drove deeper into the city, parked our little rental fiat and walked through what felt like a ghost town.  Blocks and blocks - but the noises in the distance - the beats on the cobblestones, were becoming louder - so on we walked. We found a night market in the old town - it was alive, dusk was just ebbing on the landscape, it was beautiful. We walked the stalls, snaked on our last gelato of the journey and as we wandered slowly back to the car, we happened upon this quiet little alley. It beckoned me - the light was magic.

2. What was it that lit your photography spark? Do you remember a particular camera, course, person, roll of film?

My father was a great influence on my love of photography. He always was shooting when we were kids - a hasselblad, a nikon 35mm - polaroids. My love affair truly started upon shooting my own polaroid for the first time. Polaroids are the dream - the vision - you struggle to share when you look through the viewfinder. They hold on to that alchemy...

3. What's your photo philosophy? Does it reflect your life philosophy? 

I want to be authentic above all else - and yes - I think it does play into my life. Even when I photograph my girls for publications like SMALL magazine and I give them a bit of direction - I find that I still wait - finger on shutter - until they do their own thing. Doing my own thing - teaching the girls to do their own thing - being individual, authentic and good - it is all so important.

 4. Where do you look for inspiration?

Truly my life is my inspiration. Travel, my daughters - I am incredibly blessed. 

5. What would you say is one of your 'signature' editing tricks, themes or style? What do you think makes an image recognizable and uniquely yours?

I think the way I use and play with light is something that may make my work identifiable. I love shooting into the light - I love washes of light across the composition - I love faces illuminated by the caress of soft sunlight. 

6. What aspect of your photography are you constantly working on, trying to improve?  

I still occasionally shoot digital for work and I am continually working on getting my images to look as much like they are from a film camera as possible! 

7. If you could go anywhere in the world for an epic, weeklong photo excursion all by your luxuriously unhurried self - regardless of money, time or childcare issues - where would you go and why? 

Egypt.  It is my dream. There is an ancient energy there that I know would transform me.

Thank you so much Jenifer!

You can see more of Jenifer’s work on her blog Nectar and Light and Flickr Pool. 

(And stay tuned for our next SS interview featuring another Jen!)

Writing Italy

I expected to fall in love with the language..the culture..the history..the food. I expected to be romanced by the ancient religious stone, and inspired by its accompanying Renaissance art. In Venice – I expected that the winding canals would sweep me away, and that the colors and light would bedazzle. I was not disappointed. It was everything I expected..and so much more. 

It wasn’t  the picture-postcard views and sights that captivated and caught my attention. As so often happens with me, it was  the art of the everyday ordinary that most intrigued me..and that I most loved. In every corner and alley, I found  lines of colorful laundry softly blowing in the autumn wind. Across canals, the lines appeared to lace and hold old buildings together. Between balconies, these same laundry lines tied neighbors into a community of intimate friends.

Soon, I began to make up  stories about the invisible people who lived behind the hanging wash. I’d heard of the Venetian ‘casalinghe’ – the traditional housewife – who raised the children and ruled the home. It was clear to me as to how this century’s old ritual and tradition had begun, but I did wonder why it is still practiced in these days of such modern convenience and amenity. There had to be more to this than what caught my eye. I imagined  - perhaps - it to be some sort of ‘art’ form passed on from one generation to the next. I thought that – perhaps – it was something that daughters learned from their mothers… who learned from their mothers before them..and those before that. It was not an ‘art’ that was studied, but one that was learned thru observation and osmosis, much like ‘mother tongue’. 

And – I thought about my daughter, and what it is she’d observed and absorbed along her journey. As a young child,  she was often found perched on a stool beside me, assisting and helping with daily dinners. In the afternoons when she returned home from school, she’d sit in the chair next to mine in my office, imitating my drawing  with drawings of her own. She watched..she listened..she learned.  Now 20-years old and living her own adventure and semester abroad, it was my turn to visit and follow her in her life. Studying in a language that I have never mastered, and living in a country and world that is foreign and new, I expected to learn as much from she as she’d learned from me. 

It was my chance to observe..to look..to see. I was curious to discover  what it is she’d held on to…and what it is she’d let go. I thought of the centuries old traditions of the casalinghe – how each and every one had had their own language of ritual and routine. Some – I imagined -  liked to put their clothes out to dry sorting them by color… others by order of size. Some hung in the sunshine..others in the shade. Some – I was quite convinced – hung their clothes out in the light of day..whereas others did it secretly in the darkest hours  of the  night. I thought about all of the unspoken little things and day’s rituals daughters learn from their mothers.  I wondered what mine had learned from me…and hoped that just a little piece of whatever it was, was good enough to take with her as she embarked upon her adult life.

Without question, Italy is magical. My travels and time there met and exceeded all my wildest dreams and expectations. The little girl who once clung to me…who cried when I left the house…who shadowed me wherever I went – had found wings and learned to fly. She’d grown up and  into a more adult version of her childhood self. From that little girl, a young woman is emerging. One who is beautiful, strong, self-aware and self-assured…and is very slowly finding her own voice and means of self-expression.  In our very last moments together I glanced out her window, and noticed the line of hanging clothes suspended there. It bore a familiar resemblance, yet – it was a creation and ‘art’ form that was all her own.

That was the best gift of all.

If any of you have travel stories and experiences you’d care to share..would love to hear about them here.

Image and words courtesy of Honorary Sister / Guest Blogger Marcie Scudder of Daily Practice.

Postcard Worthy

Have you ever gone on vacation, visited your standard tourist shop and found yourself dissatisfied with the array of postcards depicting images of the usual suspects?  Or maybe while on a trip to somewhere new and exciting, you captured a shot that perfectly encapsulates the one image you want to take away as a souvenir and wished you could put THAT on a postcard to send back home instead of the ones on sale 5 for a dollar.

I suppose if you were industrious enough, you could take the shot, get it printed at a local lab, and mail it out in Photojojo's mailable photo frames, but I think most of us will probably settle for posting it on our blogs or Flickr streams.  Which is totally okay and saves you a stamp to boot.

So where have you all traveled recently?  Show us your postcard worthy images, and we'll pretend we got it in the mail!  I know I'd personally buy a postcard of this lovely Dublin scene, or this New Jersey Carousel, and this awesome neon sign for Pensacol Beach.

exploring at home

I have an ever-expanding list of online bookmarks called "Travel Ideas". When I read about an inspiring adventure, whether it was at a luxury resort in the Caribean, or a just a kid-friendly site about Galveston, the act of "saving" it makes me feel like I'm half way to actually being there.

So the other day I photographed one of my favorite families. They are originally from Texas, but have been living in Holland. With the idea that she'd like to do an urban session, Debbie suggested that we go down to this place called Mi Tierra. I've lived here for six years, and had never even heard of this long-time San Antonio landmark. It's a bakery/restaurant that stays open 24 hours a day. Plus there are beautiful vibrant walls and colorful banners everywhere around the area. It's now one of my favorite places to shoot. And it's also another reminder about how much we tend to ignore the treasures that exist in our own town or city. 

What local adventures have you found through your lens lately? 

Bring me back

“When I’m feeling low all I know is that you’re there waiting for me

When I’m feeling low, all I know is that you’ll show me something new

When I’m feeling low all I know is that I’ll leave feeling free

When I’m feeling free, all I know is that you’ll bring me back again.”

•- Jeanne McGlinchey, July 2009

When I’m feeling low, with limited funds available and no vacation in sight, I have a spot that I go to feel like I’m in another place, another time, and it’s in my backyard! There is an urban oasis that spans five towns and over 2000 acres just a few miles from Boston, Massachusetts called the Middlesex Fells Reservation. The Fells has acres of hills, meadows, forests, ponds, and rock features to explore. Two of my favorite areas of the park are the endless hiking trails and Spot Pond for boating and kayaking.

As I struggle to pay my bills and my blood pressure is runs high, a hike on the birch trails to the Cascade falls or wandering an unexplored path regulates my breathing. The world is so quiet around me on those trails save for the wind through the trees, the animals scurrying in the brush, my footfalls and my (sometimes) labored breathing. The world starts to get much smaller as the park opens its arms to me. As a photographer, all I see are the little things... The light from above on that leaf canopy. The colors of the rock in the Cascade. The symbolism of that trail in front of me when I don’t know where it leads. When I am walking through the forest, breathing in the new oxygen produced by the flora surrounding me, I can’t help but gain some perspective on my life.

One of the only other places that centers me is in my kayak on Spot Pond. On weekdays and weekends from May through October, the Pond is open to non-mechanized boating. Here in my kayak I am so close to the water, to myself. Every so often, I’ll stop paddling, close my eyes and listen to the sound of the waves as they hit my little boat. I often wish I had brought my voice recorder to capture that sound, hoping it would bring me back here on sleepless nights. I lie there in the sun as it fills fill me up with warmth and light. I let my hands drift, feeling the coolness of the water teasing my fingertips. The water grounds me, and I float home supported by the earth beneath me.

This wonderful park is full of things to discover, and I find something new each time I visit. I hope that you find an oasis in your own backyard as well, they are closer than you think. Share with us something you've found that has moved you.

The Middlesex Fells includes areas in Medford, Winchester, Stoneham, Melrose and Malden, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit Middlesex Fells Reservation.

Image and words courtesy of Jeanne McGlinchey (aka Bostongaljm) who shares her photography in her shop Small World Photography on Etsy and on Flickr.