My City February 2022

MYARTS

Every Picture Tells a Story he Focu of Rebecca Zeiss

BY PETER HINTERMAN ® PHOTOS PROVIDED BY REBECCA ZEISS

In the very beginning, Rebecca Zeiss tried her best NOT to be a photographer. Because of her last name (the Zeiss company has been a worldwide leader in photographic lenses since 1890), she wanted to make a personal impact with a diŒerent style or artform. She studied painting and drawing at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and took a photography class solely as a way to document and showcase her creations.‘at class, however, led to photography as a hobby and eventually a profession. In the end, she couldn’t escape it.

“I took the class for fun,” she remembers. “I wanted to

Central Michigan University and since 2005, has taught photography and printmaking at UM-Flint. Her work has been exhibited in private collections, museums and universities throughout the United States and internationally. Inspired by shared individual stories, memories and dreams, her photography and subsequent collections are centered on objects and their storytellers. For example, “Aura Objecta” is a collection of images of her grandfather’s tools as they appear used and weathered from years of use, or appearing as well-cared-for and gleaming. Each tool holds

photograph my work and thought it would be a good way to document my portfolio. It wasn’t meant to be my focus.”To make ends meet, she worked as a wedding photographer but realized that kind of work wasn’t for her. “Doing that made me hate my camera and I quit taking pictures for nearly ve years. I didn’t pick up my camera again until 2002,” she adds. It was then that she found inspiration and a way to blend the medium with her understanding of art and the world. She received her MFA in photography from

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