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Links to our 3 featured artists.


For articles, see f2

 

JEAN FERRO

PREMIERE Featured Artist
Portfolio & Profile

VICKEY BAZE

Member Profile
& Portfolio

BETTY BENNETT

Historical Profile
by Peter Palmquist


Gallery One

A profile of Jean Ferro, Photo Artist, Los Angeles, Ca.

Jean Ferro began her career in the visual arts in Hollywood in the 1970s. Shooting personalities such as David Bowie, Marcel Marceau, Ringo Starr, Reba McEntire and at the same time building a classic library of self-portraits. "I was handed a camera and the world of images became the vista upon which my visual archive continues to bloom." Ferro's work is a growing body of images that shoot straight from the heart. 

Throughout the '80s, Ferro's self-portraits received international recognition in ZOOM magazine, published in France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, along with US national TV magazine shows, including CBS' "America", and ABC's "Eye On LA." 

In 1990, Ferro's "Statue of Liberty" project marked her transition from fifteen years of traditional photography into "Photo Art," mixing various mediums. 

A City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department "Artist in the Community Award" enabled Ferro to create a compelling and intimate 30min photo/video documentary of Los Angeles' homeless community, called "Through Our Own Eyes, Self Portraits by People Without Homes." During her 1996 Global Liberty exhibit at the Bridge Gallery, Los Angeles City Hall, a photo based mixed media work using international newspapers from 42 countries. Renowned fine art photographer, Edmund Teske, is quoted as saying about Global Liberty "...Your show Jean Ferro!-- is the essence of Walt Whitman and Edward Steichen's great show 'Family of Man.'"

Her powerful image, "Memorial Day, Forever Sad the Heart" has been exhibited at Nikon House, New York, Konica Plaza, Tokyo, and the Los Angeles City Hall Bridge Gallery for the Commission on the Status of Women. Ferro's work has been commissioned by Paramount Studios, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority and most recently in 1998-1999 Capitol Records and DreamWorks, SKG. Studios.

Ferro's journalistic style of movement and spontaneity is evident in the new publication Los Angeles , City of Dreams (Urban Tapestry series) by Tower Publishing 8/1999.

The 1989 Women In Photographer New Photographers Lecture Series presented "Jean Ferro's Eye To Eye, the Art of Self- Portraiture."

Listings include: 
1995-Current The World of Who's Who of Women editions 13-14 1994-Current Who's Who of American Women editions 19-20


 

See Gallery on WIPI

www.JeanFerro.com


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Gallery Two

Member Profile & Portfolio

Vicky Baze

 

Although I am a jockey by trade for almost twenty years, my other passion has always been photography.

As my father was in the military, my mother and I followed him to bases around the world, living in a different country practically every year from the time I was born. At 15 years of age, I began the process of creating a photographic diary about my life which continued as I began my career as a jockey. Whether training in Leatherhead, England, breaking babies in southern California or competing in races in the Pacific Northwest , my camera is always with me. This allows me a type of self-expression that melds perfectly with my life with the horses!

Whether I am riding a race in Washington State, Arizona, California, Canada or Japan there is always time after the race is run, to take off with my camera and capture the beauty of the people and the scenery around me. If there’s no time to leave the track, then walking around the backstretch is a picturesque world unto itself! Just watching the trainers and grooms as they care for the horses - soaping them up and bathing them - is always a visual treat! And the photo opportunities are endless.

Lately, the gift of a Fuji Film Digital camera from my husband, jockey Gary Baze, has got me experimenting with the camera in ways I never imagined. Self-portraits, scenics, still lifes – the possibilities are endless! My bones may get creaky, and the racing may slow down – but as long as I have eyes to see and a steady hand to get the next shot, I’ll be out there somewhere, prowling around waiting for the right light, the perfect angle, that special mood … making more photos and more photo diaries for years to come.

See Gallery on WIPI

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Gallery Three

Historical Profile: Betty Bennett, Photojournalist 1927 - 1996

Best known for her work as a theatrical photographer in New York and Philadelphia in the 1960's, Betty Bennett's life and work encompassed many art forms.

Born in Philadelphia in 1927, Betty was an accomplished concert pianist by 6 years of age. She spent the 1930's working as the child prodigy of Leopold Stokowski. During the 1940's, Betty worked as a singer on USO Tours, performing under the name: Valerie Gilbert. At age 17 yrs., she married actor Leif Erickson. By 1950, her youthful first marriage had failed. She soon met and married writer Gil Orlovitz, author of the acclaimed "milkbottle h", and moved with him to New York.
By the early 1960's, after the birth of her first daughter, Lynne, Betty's 2nd marriage was in ruins. She left New York to return to her family in Pennsylvania. Soon after, she met and married cinematographer, Joseph Nettis, with whom she had two children: her son, Buzzy, and her youngest daughter, Jenny. While raising her young children and living with Joe, Betty began her career as a photographer. Her first effort: "Philadelphia Discovered" was heralded as a creative success. 

Although she goes unaccredited for her contribution to this visual document of the City of Brotherly Love, (the credits read: Photography by Joseph Nettis), Betty's photographs comprise the majority of images in this publication. When she challenged her husband's usurping of her photo credits, he placed her in a mental institution for one year. Upon her release, she moved to New York and opened her own studio. Up until her death in 1996, Betty was still trying gain formal acknowledgement for her contribution to this book.


In the late 1960's and early 1970's, Betty's reputation as a theatre photographer grew. One of few women working in this industry, Betty's photographs appeared regularly in the New York Times and Playbill. However, Betty's greatest success came when she returned to Philadelphia to work as the house photographer for The Theatre of The Living Arts. It was here that she established professional friendships with founders John Guare, Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn. It was also here that she developed lifelong personal friendships with actors Tony Zerbe, Jonathan Frid, Ron Liebman, Linda Lavin and Sally Kirkland.


In the mid-1970's, Betty met and married her 7th husband, actor/director Terrell Bennett. 
Together, they moved to Atlanta, Georgia and worked for the Alliance Theatre, with Guy Waldron. Betty was the photographer for the Guy's first production of the Who's Pop Opera: "Tommy". Betty and Terrell moved to Hollywood in the late 1970's, where Betty worked as a photographer for Dick Clark. Following the death of her son in 1979, Betty went through a personal transformation that lasted the rest of her life. 

For most of the 1980's and up until her death in 1996, Betty worked as the Staff Photographer for The Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA) in Los Angeles. Her images during this period reflected the changes in her life. Although she still took occasional theatrical assignments, the bulk of her work during this time were photographs of her grandchildren, members of her church and her beloved horses. 


See Gallery on WIPI

Samples of her photography can be viewed upon request by contacting:-

The Betty Bennett Archive
 

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