Ten Things About Helveticaneue

Daily Ink

Stored in: Ten Things About ...

Posted On: November 18 2006

By: Brittney Bush

Photo © helveticaneue

Helveticaneue and her alter ego, Laura Kicey, are strangers to few, heroes to many, and to others, a treasure waiting patiently to be unearthed. Her typographic name hints at her graphic designer background (and aren't we glad for her sake that the font didn't retain its original moniker, "Neue Haas Grotesk"), but I spoke to Laura about a very happy photographic occasion, her latest exhibit. Read on for the Pennsylvanian photog's take on life, the universe, and hair color.

The Utata Five

I have Canon Rebel XT/350D, Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS, my flash is a Sigma EF-500 DG ST. I am getting addicted to the wide angle. LOVE!

Colorful

This sums up the whole photographic experience for me: it is my arm laid across this stump: I'm inspired by my surroundings, by nature and by the whole sensory experience while I am out wandering, and this photo pretty much nails it for me.

Socar Myles

She's witty, twisted, dark and a bottomless pit of energies, whimsy and creativity. I don't know her well personally but her work never ceases to amaze me and make me twitch.

And she dresses up like birds too, I really *get* that.

Just between you and me, I have a special 'thing' with birds... you could call it an 'agreement'... and likely I could convince said goose (it is a Canada Goose, right?) to carry the cake and corral the otter to safety.

The Helveticaneue Five

I guess I am a bit of all those things. I love the experience from beginning to end. Being wherever it is I am, with whomever I'm with, walking and taking photos, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling everything. Selecting pieces of all this sensory infomation and then bringing it back to life afterwards with color and light that help the viewer 'return' there. Hopefully they get a little of that 'oh I've never reeeeally looked at those before' or 'wow this photo almost smells like my grandmother's closet'. I just want to awaken something... maybe someone will get as excited as I do when I discovered x.

I have done a lot of work for my community through my graphic design (day)job and I met the man, a local artist and framer, who curates the bimonthly exhibit in the storefront in my travels. I wasn't supposed to show there for another two years but someone dropped out at the last minute and I got bumped ahead.

The space is as unusual as it is wonderful, with the cases being literally right out on the street. There is no 'gallery' to actually go into, so foot traffic is high. Ambler is an up and coming town with lots of great shops and boutiques and a growing arts scene. The gallery takes no commission but the artist has to do all of their own publicity. This was the greatest test and probably the best learning experience. Writing a press release and artist's statement, submitting to local press, and getting interviewed were all completely new to me and I think it helped me look at my photography as a more coherent body of work. Being able to step back from it and see how things fit together and learn how to convey that so I could promote the work was a huge step.

I think the peak was having an interview with a journalist/photographer who really understood what I'm making and my ideas, and then having her in turn, write a fantastic article about my show.

The turnout was great between the people I invited and those who just happened to walk by. I had two sales at the opening and three since, breaking even was a great relief. I think overall the reception was really warm.

I have another show lined up in February with my boyfriend and creative co-conspirator Dustin Fenstermacher at a cafe in Philadelphia. (feel the plug) I will be showing some works in local shops and restaurants in the meantime, while I submit to other galleries. I enjoy the showing process and look forward to doing it again whenever possible.

Thanks! Fortunately I haven't really met with accusations of being needy or a narcissist, which is great because I don't really make self portraits based on those compulsions, I am mostly just the Model of Greatest Convenience (TM). I don't really capitalize on the sizzling sexy aspect of self portrait photography so much, and would rather hear "What a zany idea" rather than a "You are hot' any day. Generally I am more interested in color, design, concept, and frequently, finding an emotional catharsis... whatever has me worked up (in a positive or negative way) in my life at the time, tends to manifest itself in self portraits. I'm not interested in having self portraits be the center of my art-making... I've been shying away from them lately due to discovering a number of usages without my permission. It made me want to hide my face and I have made about half of my self portraits unavailable to public viewing.

Everyone has a different reason for making their own and mine changes everyday, sometimes the need for me disappears completely. I'd rather take ideas I have for self portraits and apply them to portraits of other people, but getting to that point of trust where you can stick random objects in friends' and strangers' crevices takes some working up to, y'know?

My 'formal' training is in graphic design so I have been consciously designing most everything for *cough* years now. It is second nature for me to look at complete chaos and zero in on something so it makes sense within the frame.

The nature of the places I've been visiting lately plays a key role too. I've been going to lots of flea markets where there are massive collections of frequently repetitious things... and old abandoned homes with eyepopping wallpaper.... also my addiction to my wide angle comes into play. I hadn't actually noticed it but you are right.... I don't usually set out on my photowalks with something in mind, so I don't usually notice commonalities until after the fact, sometimes pointed out by someone else.

I've been told I shoot a lot of windows, greenery, typography and peeling things. This seems to be true.

Everything I have on flickr doesn't really represent a refined idea or process. It is the place I come to share most everything I am toying with, be it serious or silly. Some of it is successful, others, not so much. Though it seems rather haphazard way of working, I usually can make connections and distinctions after the fact. Flickr is my sketchbook.

Honey, that is what photoshop is for.... gimme a tissue.

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