I recently attended the West Coast regional conference for the Society of Photographic Educators in San Diego. As part of the conference, attendees spent a day learning from fellow educators and photographers about personal image making. Photographers presented their work and viewpoints in half hour sessions, and I came away excited about a number of portfolios.

One of my favorite presentations was by photographer Rebecca Sittler Schrock. I wrote about Rebecca on Lenscratch some time back, featuring Leisure and Wilderness and Donuts of Long Beach. Rebecca received her MFA in photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, attended an Artist-in Residence program in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 2005 and 2007, and is currently on the faculty at California Sate University, Long Beach.

The images shown below are from three series, The Queen’s Shadow, featuring work that explores the nuances of an ocean liner, Still Lifes, and A Spectacle and Nothing Strange. There is a quiet elegance to Rebecca’s work, sensual and layered, and her presentation was intelligent and succinct.

Docked in Long Beach in 1967, The Queen Mary is a historic ocean liner that doubles as a hotel, concert venue, museum and paranormal research center. Multiple owners, preservation specialists, entertainment gurus, and ghost hunters have overseen its operations and structures fro over 40 years.

Images from The Queen’s Shadow

I am fascinated by the entertainment-based realities of tourism and the complex, multi-veiled messages that are created. The photograph provides yet another layer of interpretation–a prismatic translation of the past and present.

Images from Still Life series

Images from A Spectacle and Nothing Strange

The domestic interior, with it’s potential for subtle observations of light passing through and around everyday spaces, provides a stage for these object-based performances. As the light changes, I alter the subjects physically, change their spatial relationships, or give them personalities with a suggested narrative.