Judy Ann Hoffman

Judy Ann Hoffman grew up in Anaheim, CA and has fond memories of her camera-toting relatives from far away visiting on their way Disneyland. When she received her first camera, a Kodak Instamatic (with four full power flashes in one cool flash cube) as a gift from her parents for her eighth birthday, she began toting a camera, too. Without further ado she was out photographing the bunnies in the backyard, her brother’s snake and the neighbor’s tree house. Her first photo montage: San Juan Capistrano Mission was presented to her third grade class at Benito Juarez Elementary School on a Bell and Howell TeleSonic Slide Projector when bell bottoms and Nehru jackets were first in style. 

Years later, while working as an elementary school teacher in Southern California, Ms. Hoffman discovered the power of images as a learning tool. This led to many photographic adventures across Southern California capturing photographs of weekly vocabulary words for her students. As her eye and skill developed, she was asked to manage and photograph the image galleries for her school website. This led to archival and documentary work for educational institutions including The Eugene Weiner Institute for Experiential Learning in Israel, Morocco, Greece and Turkey. Recent photographic projects include location work for Michael Saul Productions, Tone Quest Inc., and McGinnty Music. In addition, Ms. Hoffman leads digital photography workshops for children several afternoons a week in Los Angeles.

George Logan

Gerhard Clausing

It’s been a long journey, from GERHARD CLAUSING's childhood “Bilora Boy” camera to the world of high-quality rangefinders, SLRs, and digital capture. The fascination of “capturing the light” has remained. Along the way Gerhard was an educator and writer of college textbooks, and used images in his publications and in the courses he taught. Gerhard's images gradually found their audiences.

Gerhard studied photography at Otis Art Institute, Brooks Institute, and Julia Dean Photo Workshops, completing the certified course of studies. Now he is a fine arts and documentary photographer, creating images that show the viewer alternate realities that reflect inner states and global conditions. Gerhard has been particularly inspired and encouraged by Douglas Kirkland, Gerd Ludwig, Joel Sartore, Phil Borges, Mary Ellen Mark, and above all, by his mentors, Ken Merfeld

and Aline Smithson.

Marc Ward

Marc Ward left his native Central Florida after the apparent invasion of a large, three-fingered, cartoon rodent named "Mickey". East Tennessee was the destination where he earned the much prized and always lucrative, Bachelor of Studio Art degree. During this time and between painting, printmaking, and pottery, Marc became the photographer for the college newspaper and the darkroom became a second home.

Chemical trays to digital files...film to computers. The "how" of photography has vastly changed over the decades for all of us, but the love of capturing the color, line, and beauty of the world around us hasn't. The water, waves, sky, and simple beauty of Florida still inspire Marc's view of the world wherever he might be.

I personally love to look at these images and being transported to a far away alternate Universe where live is full of art and passion and politicians are dead. These still photographs should be made into movies and inspire the creative minds of the entire sci-fi film Industry.

Enjoy!

Laurie McCormick

This week's photos come from a very dear photographer friend of mine named Laurie McCormick. I might like to add a small note that work from her should be bought out fast because there are copycats trying to steal her concept and run. Just remember, the original artist who started this trend, of placing miniatures in front of a previously taken photograph and photographing that scene, was Laurie McCormick.

Laurie McCormick has a wide range of photography skills that accompany her love for building miniature arts & craft scenes. The work I would like to focus on here is based around this trend she has put in motion. Now I do realize this is not a new concept but I do find it to be perfected by Laurie herself.

Enjoy!

Justin Maller

Justin Maller is from Melbourne, Australia. He is an art director who works on high clientele advertising, yet still has time to invent other masterpieces.

I can't remember exactly how I stumbled upon his art work since it has been sitting in a folder collecting dust on my desktop. As i revisit these fine art masterpieces I remember what I love most about them. Justin's vision of art takes me to an imaginary world where a possibility of the future of planet Earth lies.

As always, I will let this art speak for itself.

Enjoy!

Liz Huston

This past week I was introduced to Liz Huston's work by Liz herself in a lonely photography class in Venice. I am actually surprised that I haven't run across this art sooner considering we hang out in the same places around Los Angeles. Both Liz and I will have fine art photography on exhibition in Venice, CA in March at the Julia Dean Gallery. More on that later.

Liz Huston was primarily a film based photographer until she got her hands on a Canon 5D. This camera became her boyfriend of sorts while her and it made lovely offspring of fine art collage photography. Liz explained to me that she photographs most of the images in her art and adds some others images to them to make a wider statement. She has 2 books out, one of which is based on the gothic funeral grounds of New Orleans. The book "Sacred New Orleans Funeral Grounds" sale's proceeds go to the Red Cross to help out in all relief efforts. Just a nice thought.

What intrigues me most about this world is how I could easily imagine it on the cover of novels or even a movie poster of an artsy Sundance film. I will shut up for now and let you make up your own opinions.

Enjoy!