WENDY ALGER (b. 1972), Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
Photography. It’s like music … It’s like your favorite song, something you can listen to over and over and over again. You try to explain it to some and you can’t. That’s the feeling it gives me. It’s like traveling and you want to tell everyone how great it was … and I have that experience every time I pick up a camera. Wendy Alger.
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MY FRIEND: WENDY ALGER
by
Jamie Dedes (The Poet by Day, a jouney in poem)
Initially, when Wendy started doing photography, it was a hobby. Then a friend suggested she become a photographer. Wendy thought that sounded just right for her. Both her parents knew photography and her dad gave her one of his cameras and some lenses.
At the time, Wendy owned an old ’68 Mustang. She says she’d drive around and listen to music. When something called out to her, she’d stop and take photographs. That’s how she began to learn what subjects appealed to her. “I photographed everything that felt right and compelled me to keep taking photographs.” Slowly, she discovered the photographer within and her own distinctive style. “I enrolled at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and trained there, where I learned manual SLR. I also learned how to use a dark room.”
Given Wendy’s vision challenges, I am always amazed at what she can do. She has visual impairment due to retinitis pigmentosa She tells me that new camera technologies make it easier. “I use a digital camera and I can review my pictures on the camera instead of in a dark room.I have a digital dark room, which consists of a laptop and Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom. This allows me to transform and print my images at home. I also use visual memory … I remember feeling to get through a photo session.”
Wendy’s long-term goal: “To have my artwork displayed in the same building as Walker Evans in my lifetime – not after – during! My vision problems are not stopping me. I never even think about that. After I was diagnosed and as soon as I got the money I bought my digital camera.”
Here is a small gallery of Wendy’s recent work with a digital camera. The photo at the head of the post and the first one below are self-portraits. Wendy’s photographs are copyright protected. You can see more of her work HERE.
© narrative, 2011 Jamie Dedes All rights reserved
© photographs, 2011 Wendy Rose Alger, All rights reserved
The BeZine 
I remember her work. It is nice to get a glimpse of recent work … she is a true inspiration.
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Wendy, So lovely to share your beautiful art here.
Rob
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