Unique frames turn 2-D photographs into 3-D art

Avid amateur photographer Linda Ziegenhagen has a flair for three-dimensional frames that complement her work and become part of it. Her creations are on display this month in the Community Room of Sisters Library, in a show she calls “Framing Central Oregon.”

Ziegenhagen grew up in Ashland and moved to Central Oregon in 1967 to student teach during her senior year at Southern Oregon Community College. Over the next 32 years in Redmond, she married Garth Ziegenhagen, and they raised two children while she taught in the Redmond School District.

“When I retired in 1999, I had time to pursue my interest in painting, which quickly changed to photography because of the new technology of digital cameras and editing programs,” she said. “I love the challenge of learning about cameras and photo composition.”

Her first serious pursuit of perfecting her work came when she joined the Sisters Area Photography Club in 2004.

“Up until then, I was shooting by instinct. I just trusted my eye,” she said.

Her first unique photographs depicted the interactions between the early morning sunlight and the pre-prohibition bottles in husband Garth’s collection. She arranged objects on a table and captured the brilliant colors, transparencies, and imperfections in the antique glass.

“The early morning sun shining through the sliding glass doors did the rest … Amazing! Exciting!” she exclaimed.

Her philosophy is KISS: “Keep It Simply Sensational.” She uses a point-and-shoot camera (Panorama Lumix DMC-FZ200) and carries “cleaning stuff, a lightweight tripod, knee pads, because ‘I’m always kneeling down to get those great angles,’ extra batteries and memory cards.”

“When I join a group, I become an active and supportive member,” she said.

In SAPC, she’s served as secretary on the board of directors, the art committee, and other jobs. She’s also a member of FORBL Art Committee and Bend SageBrushers, and is one of two volunteers for the St. Charles Redmond Hospital exhibits.

Her advice to young photographers? “Join a group or club that shares your interest in photography.”

She said, “Over the years, I have come across photographers who express themselves much better than I, and I have adopted their ‘why of it,’ which expresses why I am so passionate about photography. Photography allows me to share what is beautiful and meaningful to me with others. It offers me a language that speaks to my emotions, for which I have difficulty finding words. It allows me to tell my story and show others my framing of the world around me, and gives others a way to share theirs with me.

“My heart always beats a little faster each time I am able to capture that creative fraction of a second. When I am taking a picture, my eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers, and I must know with intuition and skill when to click the camera, because once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

In 2010, one of her bottle photos was selected by the National American Association of University Women (AAUW) to be printed and sold as part of a stationary-set fundraising project.

In 2013 and 2014, several Ziegenhagen photographs were included in juried shows at the Redmond Library and Episcopal Church Country Fair in Sisters. She had a solo show in the Redmond Library in 2015, and now, this month, in the Sisters Library. Every year, she participates in the Friends of Sisters Library Community Exhibit and the Sisters Area Photography Club exhibit.

No two frames are alike. Linda pairs each photograph with a frame that she creates from random pieces and parts of things harvested from the very spaces she’s photographed, or nearby. She scours antique shops and estate sales to find remnants of this and that to use in her one-of-a-kind frames. She enjoys making her “this-and-that” frames almost as much as she loves making the photos.

An image of the old Schreiber Barn at Juniper Flat, with Mount Hood in the distance, shows the barn’s roof partially fallen away to expose aging beams. The trees in the foreground are barren of foliage. Printed on canvas, it’s mounted on a frame made from barn board and the tines of a rake, crusted with rust, are affixed to the base of the frame, beneath the image. Above and centered are two pieces of curved wire. The whole piece tells a story of what was once a thriving life, left to ruin, but still begging to be cherished.

The entry wall features a pair of great blue heron pieces: the first is a single photograph of the heron, with its reflection in the water. The second is a series of photographs taken of the same heron and others in a rookery along the Oregon Coast at Garibaldi. The collage of six photographs shows herons wading, fishing, an adult heron feeding two chicks, and two adults, feather-dancing and preening. As a whole, the presentation indicates the life and romance of the heron rookery.

Ziegenhagen’s work will be in the Sisters Library until September 27. Most of the pieces are for sale, with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Friends of Sisters Library. Library hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 10 to 5 on Saturdays; closed Sunday and Monday.

For more information about “Framing Central Oregon,” or for additional images, contact Linda Ziegenhagen at [email protected]

bendcable.com.