Meet Raine Klover . . .

Raine Klover

"Through images we enter the imagination, a doorway to the divine."

 - Susan Goldsmith Wooldbridge

Location:  Albuquerque, NM

DOB: July 19th

Children: William (6) & Katie (3)

Husband: Chris

Animals: Rocky the Cat

Contact Info:

Name of Business: Raineworks

Website: http://www.raineworks.com/

Blog: same

Facebook: www.facebook.com/raine.klover

Twitter: www.twitter.com/raineworks

Flickr: www.flickr.com/rainek

Email: raineklover@gmail.com

What's in your bag? (if you are building your bag, what do you desire for your bag?)

Rebel xti with kit lens, my next purchase is a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens and I want to get some lighting equipment

What's your favorite editing software? Photoshop!!

Favorite Food? Favorite Color? Zodiac Sign? Anything italian, purple, cancer-girl

A few of your favorite things?

My kids, my husband, creating

What inspires you?

Living in New Mexico

Name something you just have to have everyday:

Love and art

Tell us all about your journey into the world of photography. When did you realize that this is what you wanted to do and why.

I came to photography is a rather roundabout way. Back is 2000 I was living in Seattle and getting divorced. I was also preparing to move to Dallas to get a fresh start. My husband (a graphic designer) gave me a disk with Photoshop on it and said "You should play with this." I was not an artist, not a photographer, not a crafter. I sometimes made weird collages for myself and friends and family. My whole studio apartment was one big collage of vintage clothes, magazine cutouts, and fairy lights. I was always being mistaken for an artist (I dressed weird) - but was most definitely NOT one. I didn't even own a camera at the time.

So when I made the move to Dallas I bought a camera, a Photoshop book, and started shooting and editing photos. Those first few images are still some of my favorites. I mostly used my highly photoshopped images in mixed media pieces - I sold work on Ebay and had some success with that. A whole lot of life happened between 2000 and 2006. I moved from Seattle to Dallas to New Orleans to Dayton, OH to Princeton, WV to Albuquerque. I went from being a career freight operations manager to being a graphic designer. I went from divorced to married to divorced to married again. And I became a mother. Let's just say art and photography were put on the backburner for several years.

In 2006 I participated in a yearlong project with a group of local artists. We each created one piece a week for the entire year. We met and checked in with each other once a month. For my part I decided to give myself the additional challenge of working in one theme or medium each month. December of 2006 I decided to create 4 new photographic images - no mixed media - just the images themselves. And through that experience I decided to focus on photography. We had a gallery show displaying our work from the project in March 2007. And I bought my Rebel xti that same month.

What I love about the art of photography - to me photography is not about capturing a moment – it is about capturing emotions and creating visual allegories. I believe that is why I’m drawn to photo collage as it allows me to assemble and edit images to create a story. I love sitting at my computer and layering disparate images on top of each other – until something leaps out of the screen at me – and I recognize the story these images are trying to tell me. Also, looking over the images that I love and speak to me the most I seem to hover on the darker side of life. I love things that simultaneously break my heart with their emotional context and lift me up with their unmistakable beauty. And when I see those things I point my camera and shoot.

If you already have a photography business please tell us about it, type of photography you do, how long you have been doing it, etc...

I don't have a photography business, per se. I sell my work in the gallery I own and have shown and sold my work is several venues around Albuquerque. This is this year I am going to work on creating a serious portrait and commercial portfolio and begin a commercial business.

If you are dreaming of starting your business, what are you learning and/or doing to move you towards your goal?

I am actively seeking out people and families to shoot to build up a commercial portfolio, and I looking to buy more equipment this year. I also plan to get a portfolio website up within the month.

Who is your favorite photographer that you follow and why?

I have several photographers I admire - my faves being Jack Delano who shot for the Farm Service Administration and Silvia Plachy, whose book Signs and Relics is a continuous source of inspiration. My favorite active photographer is David DuChemin.

Besides photography, what else do you do , i.e. work, domestic engineer, volunteer?

I'm a graphic designer/production person at a local sign shop and I co-own an art gallery - The Wooden Cow Gallery and Art Space. This year I have also started a website to support New Mexico artists - http://www.nmartistconnection.com/. And I started and run an artist trading cards group in Albuquerque.

What are some of your other hobbies and/or things that you like to do besides photography?

I love music - I used to book bands for a club in Seattle back in the 90s. I love my kids and my husband and we love to go on roadtrips and explore New Mexco. And I love to read - mostly biographies - truth is stranger and more interesting than fiction.

Do you have any other businesses that you are incorporating and/or combining in your photography business or that is separate other than photography?

I also do freelance design work.

If there is one thing in the world that you would like to change, what would that be and why?

Everyone in the world would have access to adequate healthcare for free. Healthcare is a basic human right.

Name three things you would like to do before you die?

Live in Spain, watch my children grow up and prosper in their chosen avocations, own an art gallery (check that one off the list!)

List three goals you would like to accomplish in 2010:

Get paid to do a commercial shoot.

Get published

Jury into some fine art shows

Please tell us about the photos you are submitting and why they are your favorites.

Reflecting Pool

This image is of the abandoned ATSF railyards in downtown Albuquerque. I love the railyards for their architecture, their innate dignity, and their history. Albuquerque was a small town on the way to Santa Fe before ATSF decided to build their regional mechanics shops here in 1880. The building in the photograph was built in 1920. This was a huge boon to the local economy - at one point 1/4 of the Albuquerque workforce was employed by ATSF. If they had not made their decision to locate the shops here - Albuquerque as we know it would not exist today. The other part of this photograph that I love is the digital "reflection" that makes it look like water is rising inside the buildings. I added that because I fear if nothing is done to preserve this buildings soon they will be swallowed up in decay and I wanted to show that without being too literal.

Love Letters

Love letters is a composite of several images taken of a row of mailboxes in Galisteo, NM.

I love it's dreamlike quality.

Beauty

Captured at a Dia de Los Muertos parade this year,

"Beauty" celebrates the amazing culture of New Mexico and the beauty of it's people.

Silent Songs

This image is one of a large series I have done melding glass negatives from 1910-1920 with my photography. I own over 300 of these negatives and they are all from one studio that operated in downtown Albuquerque during that time. I bought these through a local artist who had no idea of their origin. Through research I feel I have identified the studio that took them and found that the owner was a woman, Mrs. Eddie (Edwina) Ross Cobb. Her father, Edmund G. Ross, was a Territorial Governor of NM, and was one of the people profiled in JFK's Profiles in Courage. Her husband, William Cobb, was a photographer and surveyor who came out to NM while working for the ATSF. When he died she took over the photography business. These photographs are an obsession of mine. Some of them have names written on them and I have actually tracked down descendants of some of the people in them. They have added a layer of "connectedness" to my life and to my love of New Mexico. 

Most of the glass negatives have some level of water damage to them, apparently they were stored in a shed for several years. The one in "Silent Songs" was so damaged that most of the image was wiped away, leaving only the woman's eyes and top of her head. But her eyes spoke volumes to me, so I overlaid and image of a lock around her and she became "Silent Songs". I also wrote a poem about the image.

you cannot silence me



not with your sneer



not with your force



definitely not with your wit



cover my mouth



I will scratch out my missives to the world



bind my hands



my eyes can still sing my story



you cannot silence me

--

Raine Klover

Owner

The Wooden Cow Gallery and Art Space

Owner

Raineworks

Owner & Editor

http://www.nmartistconnection.com/

__________________________________________________________________________________
 
Thank you Raine, for shaing your story.  I am so impressed with your ambition and creativity!  Congrats to you for all you do, it is really great!  I wish you the best of luck as you continue your journey in the photograpy world.  I am captivated by your last photo, Silent Songs, and love the history behind that amazing find.