Alu says about ‘Overlooked and In-Between’…objects and situations we normally ignore, expressions existing in-between posed expressions, new discoveries found by zooming in.

I’m a huge believer that we often overlook the potential that is right in front of us. This might be because we’re trained by society to focus on what it thinks is important and separate out everything else. We’re constantly required to go through this kind of exercise in our daily lives and become so used to it that we might be inclined to carry it over to our photography as well.

A good example is the posed photograph. Somehow it isn’t worth shooting until everything is perfect, in its place, and exactly as it should be. What about the moments building up to and after the shot. Don’t these tell an interesting story as well?

When I’m walking through a given area, I’m constantly imagining zooming in on smaller objects around me. When I do, those objects become as important to me as the larger, zoomed out image in front of me. As a result, everything around me becomes of equal importance, and as a result, many additional potential photographic subjects come into view.

It’s as if we’re zooming in or out of a fractal. One level of zoom is not any less or more important than another. Everything becomes equally important, and applying that way of thinking to our photography, the act of picking and choosing our subjects becomes much more fluid.

I’m interested in seeing the results of your own explorations in this area. Try to turn what is normally thought of as unimportant or uninteresting into something worth photographing. Just relax the mind and let it flow!”

You can some of Alu’s fractal work at this link:

Jeff Alu is a former exhibitions director at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA) in Santa Ana, CA. During his time there he curated 5 photographic exhibitions, including two dedicated exclusively to cell phone photography, as well as numerous other exhibitions.

Prior to his life as a photographer, Jeff worked for a number of years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory hunting for asteroids and comets. This work involved using the 18” Schmidt Telescope at Palomar Observatory.

Alu has been published in Black and White Magazine, Lenswork Extended, Adori Noir, Shots, as well as online at the Art Photo Index and the aCurator blog. A book of his images, “Jeff Alu:Surrealities” is published through Zero+ Publishing.

His work can be seen at www.jeffalu.com

20% of artist fees go to charity. 10% to the curator’s charity and 10% to the first place winner’s charity.

Alu has chosen The Los Angeles Music and Art School (LAMusArt) as his charity.

Their mission is to provide the community of East Los Angeles with equitable and affordable access to multidisciplinary arts education programs.

http://lamusart.org