Managing Editor Jennette Clark

Director of Photography Tamelyn Feinstein

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5x5 Volume I, Number 3Printed in the USA

5x5 is published by Jennette Clark & Tamelyn Feinstein, PO Box 6707, Woodland Hills,

California 91365 Copyright 2012 5x5 magazine, all rights re-

served. The copyright for each image/article is held by the credited author. All other material

is the exclusive copyright of 5x5, Jennette Clark, and Tamelyn Feinstein. Postage paid at

Woodland Hills CA 91365-6707ISSN 2166-2487 (print)

ISSN 2166-2495 (online)

Send address changes to 5x5, PO Box 6707, Woodland Hills CA 91365

Front Cover Image: Brenda Stumpf Back Cover Image: Susan Sabo

ContentsVol. I, No. 3 - December 2012 DepartmentsNote from the Editor

Review: No Strangers at the Annenberg Space for Photography Ancient wisdom and rites of passage run up against globalization and the modern world. Jennifer Frost reviews the Annenberg’s latest exhibit, guest curated by noted anthropologist, author and photographer, Wade Davis.

Q&A: Brenda Stumpf Gracefully twirling princesses, knights in shining armor, and the mer-maid sirens of myth are but a few of the enchanting discoveries to be made beneath the waves. Take a fantastic peek at life under the sea with aquatic photographer Brenda Stumpf.

Essay: How Photographers Reconnect Us to the WorldPhotographers Dorothea Lange, Susan Middleton and David Littschwa-ger use their art to raise awareness of man’s negative impact on the envi-ronment and serve to remind us of our role as stewards.

FeaturesGod Is in the Detail More than mortar and stone, buildings are also very often works of art, comprised of details which frequently go unseen. Our featured photogra-phers present a few of the little things we tend not to notice.

Playing With the Elements Flaming angels, cloud ships and the translucent wonders of ice are just a few of the images to spring from the lenses of photographers who focus on the natural world.

As a Child I Dreamt of Dogs Photographer and dog lover Susan Sabo offers a preview of her upcoming show.

Cover Story: Fragments Taking a closer look at the little things that make up the whole.

Editors

Credits

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Elements

Vol. I, No. 3 - December 2012 $20.00

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Famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is often credited with the aphorism, “God is in the detail,” meaning that even the little things, those small touches which go largely unnoticed, are worth doing properly and well. Even they are important. Most photographers would most likely agree with him, for who else is generally compelled to clamber over rubble in order to snag a shot of a once-grand room now filled with graffiti, lie for hours on the marble floor of the Paris Opera shooting photos of the floor grates, or find herself mesmerized by the sound and lines of a simple French letterbox in a plain white door? Mies is also credited with the expression, “Less is more,” a sentiment with which the photographers highlighted here clearly agree.

GodIs

in the Detail

A Designation Cité of Art and History Laura Evans

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Summer Storm Marico Fayre

Lighthouse Hayley Finch

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As a Child, I Dreamt of Dogs

by Susan Sabo

Review

By Jennifer Frost

No Strangers at the Annenberg Space for Photography

The Annenberg Space for Photography’s newest exhibit, no strangers, is art on a mission. Comprised of 140 images taken in countries around the globe, this multi-artist exhibition inspires and provokes its audience. The cultural diversity arrayed in the galleries stretches from the African rituals, dances, and celebra-tions recorded by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher to breath-taking Mongolian portraiture and landscape contributed by Hamid Sardar-Afkhami. Aaron Huey’s visceral images of Na-tive Americans are no less striking than Steve McCurry’s Shao-lin monks defying gravity as they pray suspended upside down.

These images create in the viewer a breathless sense of the hu-man spirit in all its iterations. As guest curator, anthropolo-gist, and photographer Wade Davis so eloquently puts it dur-ing his interview for the documentary film which accompanies no strangers, these pictures show us some of “the many different answers to the question of what it means to be human.” The point is made, in the words of the contributing photographers and in the wordless language of the photos themselves, that though there are various answers to that question, outmoded notions of cultural stratification have no place in no strangers.

Images of untouched cultures, people who remain unchanged by

On a Tuesday afternoon after a morning rain, I stood at the edge of the Stones Creek River in Murfreesboro, Ten-nessee, and watched a layer of grease ooze by the bank. The run-off, I surmised, was from the local – and fabulous – fried chicken establishment a block away. The chem-ically-altered lard did not belong in that beautiful current any more than BP crude oil belonged in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico. But as I stood there, a ray of sunlight sud-denly transformed the slick into a brilliant mix of sparkles and rainbows that, to my eye, danced along the water. Momentarily transfixed, I forgot I was looking at chicken grease in the river and was instead enthralled by an im-promptu ballet of color, light and spectacle. Yet, the sun soon disappeared behind a cloud, and the light show ended as quickly as it had come. And there was my chicken fat, still slurping down the current, looking like a mini-oil spill.

Murfreesboro is not a major city, but as an outer suburb of Nashville, its population has nearly quadrupled in the past twenty-five years. With its many new citizens came new construction, economic growth and industry, as well as city dump issues, river run-off and traffic problems. Part of the city’s Greenway System, the winding Stones River Trail fol-lows the Stones River for nine-miles and functions as a city-planned nature trail and retreat for residents – well, let me back up: it would feel more nature-like if it wasn’t for all the trash. The main culprits are paper and plastic: empty water bottles, McDonald’s bags, red Coke caps. Hundreds of peo-ple volunteer every spring and fall to collect the rubbish, but after collection, when we return to enjoy the space later, we find the same amount of trash – or more – in need of pick-up.

Though our nation is slowly adopting a “greener” lifestyle, we have all, to some degree, accepted the idea that pollution is a by-product of living in an industrialized nation. Some pollution is integral to progress, right? But the Stones River light-and-grease show made me stop and wonder if there will be a day when my brain will be unable to distinguish pollu-tion from a healthy environment? How bad does it have to get before we start conserving as much as we are consuming?

A good part of the answer lies in acknowledging the severity of the pollution crisis. Documenting environmen-tal issues has been the mission of many artists for decades. Through their work, they seek to draw our attention to the imbalance human consumption is bringing to the Earth, both locally and globally. One of the great pioneers of using art to create awareness of environmental issues was photogra-pher Dorothea Lange. Lange, employed by the Farm Securi-ty Administration during FDR’s New Deal, documented the exploited and poverty-stricken migrant workers displaced by the severe drought and dust storms that swept across the Great Plains in the 1930’s. This ecological phenomenon, commonly referred to as the Dust Bowl, is the biggest man-made environmental disaster ever recorded in the United States. (Cain) At the turn of the century, government land grants and soaring grain prices led to a population boom in the Great Plains. Farmers looking for cheap land and rich soil found both in abundance in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Texas; however, after decades of concentrated

Essay

By Rachel Morris Helms

How Photographers Reconnect Us to the World

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Angel Rachel Nichole

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Playing with The Elements

13Marico Fayrewhatwillyoureveal.com

I began falling in love with pho-tography while using a pink plas-tic point-and-shoot in the woods surrounding my childhood home. Moving up to an old Honeywell Pentax with black & white film in high school helped define my vi-sion and personal style. I continue to be inspired by the changing light and color of different places I travel, a sense of drama imparted during my time as an actress, and a love of literature developed dur-ing the many hours of my child-hood spent inside fantastic realms of myth and legend.

For years I loved reading books about women who left their mun-dane and confining lives behind to re-establish themselves in unfamil-iar territory. From the snow drifts of Sweden to the dust of eastern Texas, the islands of the Mediter-ranean and the cafes of Paris, each left something important behind and emerged, transformed. Ienvied the transformation, think-ing my life too set, too happy for such a brutal awakening. Perhaps this is why it took me so long to recognize the Fool’s precipice at my feet. And finally to knowingly and intentionally leap off of the edge. I forgot my literary lessons. I forgot that on the way down, you grow wings.

Weather is part of mariko, an explo-ration of self, belonging, and the physical and metaphoric relation-ship between the human body and nature. Through the camera I catch glimpses of the essence of life, the truth of my experience, a record of the transient beauty of nature. I want to capture a fleeting moment, turn a thought into something tan-gible, something understandable.

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Q&ABrenda Stumpf

Brenda Stumpf started professional life as a design artist. Armed with a degree in graphic design from Cal State, she co-founded Prime8 Interactive, a Long Beach communica-tions firm which specializes in high impact graphic designs and brand development. When the economy crashed in 2008, Stumpf opted to diversify and apply her years of experience and knowledge of art and design toward learning more about photography, something she already enjoyed. Making the transition resulted in what Stumpf characterizes as “an entirely new outlet of creative expres-sion… and a whole lot of fun.” We came across Stumpf’s images while researching underwater photography and fell in love. Her below-the-surface images are full of grace-ful arcs and tranquil romance, featuring dancers, lovers, sea life…and mermaids. She also shoots portraiture and locations, but even those contain the unexpected, from vampires, to ice-covered European canals drenched in the golden lights of a city at night. She recently returned from the Yucatan Peninsula, where she shot a book of mermaid photography she will publish in 2013. We were beyond excited to interview her for 5x5.

5x5: How would you describe your style? Stumpf: I would have to say my style leans toward romantic. I am attracted to things that I find rich in texture and with a certain quality and clarity of light. I am often more interested in the nature of things as they should be, be it beautiful or terrifying, more than a literal documenta-tion of a subject. I try to achieve that through creative locations, costuming, and manipulation of light.

5x5: How did you get involved in underwater photography?Stumpf: I’ve always loved the imagery of photographers such as Howard Schatz and Zena Halloway. As I was initially getting into photography, I just wanted to try my hand at anything I could – fashion, portraits, architecture, and I eventually landed on underwater.

5x5: What attracts you to water imagery?Stumpf: The ethereal qualities of underwater photography simply cannot be matched “topside.” There is an unnatu-ral aesthetic that really resonates with me. It is a different world. I also enjoy the unpredictability of the environ-

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ment. You can only loosely plan for any given shot, and there are no repeats. If I fail to capture a moment, it can never be fully recreated.

5x5: When did you start shooting underwater?Stumpf: My first experience with underwater photogra-phy came in 2009, when a girlfriend and I decided to rent some equipment and play in her pool for the day. Neither one of us had any idea what we were doing. After making several phone calls, we were referred to AB Sea, where we rented a full underwater setup: housing for the camera and underwater strobes. I was lucky enough that day to receive some quick tutelage from Alan Broder (owner of AB Sea) on what to expect from the equipment

and how light behaves underwater. His tips were invaluable.

5x5: How deep down do you usually shoot? Stumpf: This actually varies. For some shots, we are only a few feet under the surface, and the model can actually stand up at any moment and be above the water. At other times, we have shot at depths of 15 feet or more. It all depends on the costuming, the conditions of the water/environment, and the level of comfort everyone has. I have to place my trust in my models and they have to trust me. I cannot give them any direction once we are both submerged. We have to work together to make magic at that point.

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Blue Light Jules Falk Hunter

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Fragments

21Mylène Bressan instants-suspendus.net

I was born and grew up in the French Alps, surrounded by mountains and green forests. At 7, I stole my parent’s camera and tried to photo-graph a fly on an apple. Blurry, very blurry. 15 years later, I got my first digital camera. Since then, I spend my time on all fours in the grass, nose to the ground and eye to the viewfinder, trying to catch the light in very unexplored lands, just under our feet...

I now live in South France, trying to arrange my time between my work as a web developer and my passion for photography. Spirituality is fully part of my life and artistic approach; I am constantly amazed and inspired by the perfection of Creation.

These are tiny little moss flowers, which do not exceed [more than] a few millimeters in height. They grow in the woods, on rocks, sometimes just on the edge of the asphalt. Their little bells make them very expressive; they look like humans, on another scale. Light in undergrowth is magical and provides very interesting effects and colors.

Macro photography is my first love, but Irecently began to attempt nude photogra-phy, trying to show with the human body what I see in tiny flowers: delicacy, natural beauty, and life. In 2010, I was selected by the agency PhotoBoite for their exhibition, “30 Under 30 Women Photographers.”

My photography has also been used to illustrate a divinatory game based on crystal stones, L’Oracle Cristal. Crystal transparency gives a nice light to play with.

Masao Yamamoto is my favorite photographer. His universe is like a box where you can get all kinds ofmemories and emotions. There’s a lot of magic in his work - it is a wonderful breath for me. I also admire the poetic work of French humanist photographer Édouard Boubat.

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Muscinale 7Mylène Bressan

From Bressan’s series titled Muscinale, inspired by the work of German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Haeckel’s monograph “Muscinae” (Mosses) appeared in his influential work, Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature), published between 1899 and 1904.

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Onion Study Rob Hardwick

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Gills Lynn Dorey-Allen

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26Martin Köglflickr.com/photos/liquidsculptures

I bought my first SLR in 1994, and started with the photography of water drops. However, with analogue gear, the possibilities for this kind of photography were rather limited. Small changes in the lighting conditions or the timing often have a large effect on the final result. So each time I set up a new series, I had to note everything I changed, and wait for the slides to be developed before I could see the effects of the changes I had made. This was rather time-consuming and often disappointing, so I dropped the topic quickly, even though I had already gotten some positive responses to my shots. My interest in pho-tography only started to grow again early this year, when I bought my first digital SLR and discovered that there was a whole new world to be explored, especially in the field of water drops, where now the results of setup and timing changes could be seen immediately. So I purchased the necessary equipment and started to delve into the topic again, after almost 18 years. Enthusiastic feedback to my first pictures from friends and family – and sometimes also very critical feedback in the German DSLR forum – gave me the motivation to go on with my hobby and to improve my skills.

In water drop photography, my artistic interest is joined by my passion for technology. To control the drops, I use a micro controller and magnetic valves, so that I can finely adjust valve opening times and delay; sometimes, a millisecond more or less already has a significant influence on the final picture. Before starting a series, I think about the shapes and effects I want to achieve, and then set up my equipment accordingly. Besides the photographic gear, I also have an array of different “ingredients” such as food colourings, acrylic paints, water thickener to increase the water’s viscosity, acrylic plates for light diffu-sion and reflection, and so on. Of course, chance also plays a role, since there is never a 100% reproducibil-ity, and that is what makes each picture unique.

I want to appeal to the viewer’s imagination and sense of beauty. Even though I give titles to my pictures, I encourage people to look at them with their own eyes and use their imagination. My goal is achieved when the viewer doesn’t just look at a pic-ture, but is motivated to linger and immerse in it or is touched by it. That’s one of the things I like so much about water drop photography: it appeals to your imagination and lets you enter into a different world that you usually don’t see.

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Jeremy Beckmanbelleshaw.com

I’m largely self- taught, aside from a basic photo class in high school. My uncle was an avid photographer, and he encouraged my early interest in photography. I always liked taking photos, but my passion has grown over the years. At this point it’s a way of life, something I feel a vital need to do. Initially, my photography was just something that I’d do once in a while when I was someplace interesting, or at an event. Eventually, taking photos became the reason to go places, to make things happen. At this point, I plan every weekend around my photography, finding new locations, or returning to familiar haunts, often with specific kinds of shots in mind.

I’m very much inspired by music. I often shoot while listening to bands like Loscil, Tim Hecker, Sigur Ros, etc. Listening to odd, ambient music also encourages me to try new things in my photography, to not worry about something being too abstract. I’m much more interested in how a photo feels than whether or not the subject is readily recognizable. Often my photos are meant to be slightly humorous, if only darkly. I’m never quite sure how much that comes across. I think the gloomy black and white blur of my work probably seems more pretentious than playful.

Early on I devoured photos books by Robert Frank, Walker Evans, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Karl Blossfeldt, and others. In recent years, I’ve been avidly following many photographers on Flickr. I also love the paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat. I seem to be drawn to artists who are interested in form, detail, and have a somewhat dispassionate eye. I’m fascinated by details.

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Yin-Yang Jenie Clark, Managing Editor

I’ve been fascinated with distortion, lately. My preferred medium is cling wrap, but a good magnifying glass - and by good, I mean the more badly ground, the better - is

also very satisfying. This tree is my favorite photographic subject. It’s hanging on and doing well, despite having lost half its root system to soil erosion. It gives us badly needed shade in the heat of Southern California summer, even as it drips a stagger-

ing amount of sap all over our cars. Its sturdy branches help to shelter us from wind and rain, while they are the favorite roosting place of owls who copiously splatter the

driveway with their waste. That tree is yin and yang, and I love it.

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Learning to FlyTamelyn Feinstein, Photography Editor

I’ve always been someone who feels very keenly the changing of the seasons -- the fall and drift of leaves, the end of harvest, the shift of light. Someone once told me, “You

can’t divorce yourself from nature.” And sure enough, every autumn, I fall.

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ContributorsJeremy Beckman belleshaw.compages 78-79

Mylène Bressaninstants-suspendus.net50-51 James Bruntz badmojophoto.com 58-59 John Dolan johnfotohouse.com24-25 Lynn Dorey-Allen lynndorey-allenphotography.weebly.com52-55

Laura Evans sweetdreamsandhoney.etsy.comoohprettyshiny.etsy.com 4-9 Marico Fayre whatwillyoureveal.com12-14, 22-23

Hayley Finchin.5thvillage.com/u/ladyhayles 10-11, 15

Rob Hardwickflickr.com/photos/orbed64-66

Jules Falk Hunterjulesfalkhunter.smugmug.com44-48

Michele Jensenredbubble.com/people/photobella62-63

Martin Kögl flickr.com/photos/liquidsculptures pages 68-71

Photo Creditsno strangers Dinka cowherd, page 16 © Beckwith/Fisher Shaolin monks, page 17© Steve McCurry Mongolian boy with eagle, page 17 © Hamid Sardar-Afkhami Q&A All images by Brenda Stumpf

Writing Creditsno strangers Jennifer Frost relocated to Los An-geles from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2007. She completed undergradu-ate studies in English Literature & Art History at the University of Iowa. She previously reviewed Who Shot Rock & Roll for 5x5.

As a Child I Dreamt of Dogs Susan Sabo is a Long Beach portrait photographer and dog lover.

Greg Fallis is the managing editor of Utata.org and teaches advanced workshops in mystery writing for the Gotham Writers’ Workshop.

How Photographers Reconnect Us to the World Rachel Morris Helms currently resides in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with her husband, dog and two cats.

Donors5x5 would like to express our sincere appreciation to the following people for their gracious support: Jack Womack Kina Williams

David Mathiseldavephoto.compage 77

Tyrone McCrayflickr.com/photos/tytheterrible/60-61

Diane “DK” Millertheshutterbugeye.com56-57

Crissy Mitchell etsy.com/shop/dullbluelight72-73

Rachel Nicholerachelnicholephotography.com18-19 Michel Pincaut michelpincaut.com20-21 Susan Sabofreshsimpletrue.comBack Cover & pages 40-43

Heather Evans Smithheatherevanssmith.com27-29

Brenda Stumpfbstumpf.comFront Cover & pages 30-39

Elena Tregnaghi elena-t.compage 49

Alisa Whitleyalisawhitley26

Dave Wood davewoodphotography.com47

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Susan Sabo