Tag Archives: photography

Zipporah Lomax, Luminary Photographer of Burning Man

I once heard the story of a child at Burning Man who looked around at the spectacle and said, “I don’t get what the big deal is. This is just a bunch of adults acting like children.”

An alternative community in the desert, Burning Man is an open canvas for self-exploration and self-expression. 70,000 people now make the pilgrimage each year for seven dusty days to experience the multi-layered experience that is Burning Man. Intermingled in the chaos there is a childlike essence to the endless playground that is constructed on the Playa (Black Rock Desert, NV) each year; and as the community grows, it ushers in more of the little burners. As adults, many Burners use these seven days to bask in the remembrance of the wild potentials for free expression that were the feelings of their childhood.

zipporah lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

Surrounded by youthful indulgences, the young Burners become the wise sages of this playful community. Children naturally bring some of the most potent Playa tools: their fiercely wild imaginations and insatiable hunger for play. The children of Burning Man are beautifully innocent and unwaveringly honest examples of the essence of this spectacular, cultural phenomenon.

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

Zipporah Lomax, a festival photographer, has taken on the role of weaving the story of these dusty little ones into a photography book entitled Dusty Playground. Lomax has been a part of the Burning Man community for 15 years now. More recently, her lens has led her into the intimate lives of families on the Playa. In an art project funded by a group of individuals who believed in Lomax’s creative endeavor, Lomax received $47,775 from 448 backers to bring these photographic images to life.

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

We had a chance to get the perspective of Zipporah Lomax herself on her approach to this colossal community that is opening the pages of a new perspective of Burning Man by honoring the “tiniest burners.”

BW: As an artist, you are constantly questioning what your work means to yourself and others; and to have such a resounding positive affirmation about what you’re doing, through your Kickstarter, that’s really fantastic.

ZL: I was really asking the world [with the kickstarter] to confirm that what I’m doing is worth putting all my energy into… I really could not have anticipated how much attention it would end up garnering on its own. … I thought people might laugh that I wanted to make a book about the kids. I think I’m still kind of in awe.

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

BW: How do you feel your art is also simultaneously your gift?

ZL: Even if I thought about that for a while, I don’t know that I would be able to separate those two words from each other, “art” and “gift”… I really think that everyone was born with the ability to cultivate, or transform, an interest into a gift. If there is enough genuine and authentic interest in something, and enough dedicated and focused attention on it, I think that anything can become an art or a gift.

BW: As you watch the cultural identity of Burning Man change and more in the past 15 years, how has that affected your own artistic expression?

ZL: My first response is that it’s difficult to measure the shift in either the culture or myself, because I’ve been part of it… I know that for me Burning Man has always been a place, not to disconnect from some default world, and not to party my face off for one week in the desert, but really quite the opposite … There’s always been this clarity that comes for me, in that really dusty place.

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

BW: How have you captured that change through your lens, and how have you captured the children within that change?

ZL: My first awareness of a little child was in 2001 at center camp. This tiny little baby, who wasn’t even walking yet, just sitting there in the dust in this white, very dusty onesie that said “F*ck Bush.” I remember looking at this child and just being so struck by imagining what this child was gonna grow up to be, having this really early exposure to what I felt was really a cutting edge experimental culture … I think I’ve always been really aware of them, fascinated by them, and totally in love with them. I think they are the dustiest little sages, and I’ve had the most awesome conversations with them, which I can’t really regurgitate, but in the moment I’m just like “you are such an awesome little being and I can’t wait to see who you become and what you do out there.”

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

BW: You’re following these children through their learning experience of this culture that’s ever-evolving, just like these children are.

ZL: I want to spend more time with my subjects, and get to know them a little bit so that the photos are truly an honoring of what they are doing, and the more time that I can spend with them, even if it’s only five minutes, then the photos aren’t just this collection of visual high fives, they are these beautiful little vignettes.

Zipporah Lomax
Photo: Zipporah Lomax

BW: It’s like you’ve been chosen to tell this story.

ZL: I feel really grateful that I get to be the one to bring this project into being….As much as a mother doesn’t know what their child is going to look like while it’s growing inside them, I don’t know yet. I’m as in the dark as everyone else is about how it’s actually going to look, but I’m up for it, I’m ready to birth it.

To find out more about Zipporah Lomax and Dusty Playground, go to www.dustyplayground.com.

10 Tips for Scoring Your Best Selfie

Can you even remember a time when the front-facing camera didn’t exist? In today’s world, it’s hard to come across someone who doesn’t know what a selfie is, or hasn’t taken one (or two… or three…or 1,000) themselves. Whether you’re taking a selfie to show off your new spring-do (which is what I did), or simply because you look picture-worthy good, these tips will help you put your best face forward!

Tip #1: Clean your camera lens

Ladies if you’re reading this, I’m sure you can relate to impossible-to-wipe-off makeup that gets smudged everywhere — especially your phone. I often find myself asking to use my guy’s phone, just because I swear his camera is that much clearer than mine (even though we both have the same phone). To get your best selfie, you’ll need the clearest quality photo. So first thing’s first, give you lens a good wipe down.

Tip #2: Have great lighting that’s in front of you

Amazing lighting is what’s going to make or break your selfie. Be sure to keep the light in front of you, and focus on natural light for the best results. For my selfies, I simply stood in front of my patio door to get the right light.

Joy Dyer Selfie

Tip #3: Find the sweet spot

This requires a bit of moving around. Although you might have great lighting in front of you, it might not always translate well onto your selfie. I always like to tap the screen on my iPhone so the camera knows just where to focus, and the light is well-balanced and not sitting brightly behind me.

Tip #4: Don’t drown in your background

Of course, your face should be the main focus of your “selfie”, so be sure you’re not competing with a distracting background (such as a messy bedroom or a place with a lot of activity/people behind you) and find a background that will compliment you. Alternatively, sometimes a cute background will make your selfie that much better and make you want to pull out your phone to take one in the first place (think: a cute, dainty café or a decorative wall mural).

Tip #5: Chin down, phone up

To ensure those features look as steamlined as possible, remember to keep your chin down, and hold your camera slightly higher than face level for an easy, simple contour.

Tip #6: Work your best angles

If your left profile is your best profile (like it is for me), then by all means, you’ll want your selfie to capture that side of your face! If you struggle with getting a good full-frontal face selfie, then find your own “duck face”, which is any kind of pout that will create the illusion of cheekbones and a more symmetrical-looking, confident face.

Joy Dyer Selfie

Tip #7: Look at yourself, not the camera

I find that when I look at myself on the screen when I’m taking a selfie, rather than at the camera lens, the end result ends up looking more natural and my eyes look more relaxed, rather than staged. This is the same reason why, even though the resolution is much clearer, I choose to stay away from the back-camera.

Tip #8: Do whatever you need to feel confident

The best selfies are taken when you feel your best. So whether you need to throw some waves in your hair and put highlighter on, or grab that adorable new sun hat and off-the-shoulder top you just bought, do it! There are no hard and fast rules with this one. Whatever you feel like you need to do that will boost your confidence, is what you should do. I even find myself throwing my hand on my head (like I did below) just because it feels more natural to me and helps take away any awkard-ness I might be feeling mid-selfie.

Tip #9: Embrace your signature pose

Chances are, if you don’t know what your signature pose is, your friends will be able to tell you. Whether that’s a huge, beautiful teethy smile, puckered lips, or eyes that smize, keep to it and rock it! This is your selfie after all, and you want it to be undeniably you.

Tip #10: Edit to perfection

There’s nothing wrong with getting a little help, or as I like to call it “adding some juice” to your photos. If there’s one app you want to be using for your selfies, and one app alone, it’s Facetune. Some of the features include blemish eraser, whitening, clone stamp (patch tool), detail highlighting, and more. I personally love to use the detail tool to make my eyes or other little detail, like my necklace or arm candy, pop ever so slightly in my selfies. Trust me, it makes a world of difference!

Why You Need to Know Cindy Sherman

These days, anyone with an Instagram account is intimately familiar with the idea of stylized self-representation. But long before “selfie” was a word and Kim Kardashian dominated the medium, Cindy Sherman was producing experimental photography using herself as the subject.

Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman (Photo by M. Von Holden/WireImage for Springer/Chicoine PR)

She came to prominence in the late 70s with her black-and-white series, Untitled Film Stills. In all 69 photos, a twenty-three-year-old Sherman takes on the persona of a young starlet, appropriating the look of the 8-by-10 glossy images put out by film studios in the 1940s-60s. Uncanny, surreal and completely captivating, the images show Sherman encompassing all the clichés and tropes of femininity from the big screen. They’re photos of her, but at the same time, her identity is nowhere to be found in them.

In the 35 years since then, Sherman has created an extensive body of work that, for the most part, uses her own body as a way to explore the roles women are meant to play in society. Using makeup, prostheses, costumes, and an astonishing ability to control her facial muscles, she has transformed herself into hundreds of completely unique characters. Brutal, in-your-face (pun fully intended) directness dominates her imagery whether she’s channeling an Upper East Side matriarch, 18th-century courtesan, or demented clown with melting face paint. Unlike Kardashian, Sherman doesn’t have a glam squad or assistants. She works alone in her New York City studio, applying makeup and adjusting lighting until she’s satisfied.

Cindy Sherman published by Hatje Cantz
Hatje Cantz just released, Cindy Sherman, an extensive collection of photographs from the prolific artist. As discussions of how women are portrayed in the media, the changing face of feminism and how we present ourselves through photography are trending daily, it’s the perfect time to take an in-depth look at this groundbreaking artist. Now available on Artbook, here.

(GERMANY OUT) Germany - Berlin - Kreuzberg (Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg): Martin-Gropius-Bau, retrospective of the American artist Cindy Sherman (Photo by Martin Sachse/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
(GERMANY OUT) Germany – Berlin – Kreuzberg (Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg): Martin-Gropius-Bau, retrospective of the American artist Cindy Sherman (Photo by Martin Sachse/ullstein bild via Getty Images)