Journey to Wonderland

A View Through The Holga Camera

ISBN: 979-8-3507-3597-0
By: Luke, Jessie

ABOUT THE BOOK

Journey to Wonderland visually displays a pictorial narrative of the timeless classical children's novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by English author Lewis Carroll. It is a theatrical adaptation that reflects Alice’s long journey down the rabbit hole. There she discovers an extraordinary world of unusual characters and encounters unforeseeable challenges. Lewis Carroll created a world where animals acted like real people, expressing unique personal characteristics; feelings of happiness, sadness, anger, frustrations, and obsessive personal flaws all driven to meet their own basic needs. The Holga plastic toy camera has unique features, soft focus; intense vignetting; and distortions, producing extraordinary imagery that masquerades as illusions and invites viewers to see through the eyes of Alice’s imagination. Journey to Wonderland touches upon the story's focal point, in which the main character, Alice, uncovers a world of imagination that goes beyond the feelings of her reality. It also symbolizes a personal journey in discovering ways to create complex images involving different technical aspects that affect the quality of photographs. Despite the Holga camera’s limitations, the results are unique unexpected, and unpredictable. But that is the beauty of it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessie Luke

Jessie Luke is recognized for her incredible images created with a plastic toy camera, the Holga. Her photographs have been exhibited nationwide all across the United States and internationally. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and graduated Magna Cum Laude at the University of North Florida. Luke created the Kodak Girl photo series using black and white film with eight different old Kodak cameras, starting with the oldest, the Number 2 Brownie camera box, built-in 1904. Her interest was to practice the art of its craftsmanship. The Ghost Series was the first project Luke began capturing images with the HOLGA camera. She entered a national photography competition from the American Society of Media Photographers in New York, winning 3rd place in the student category with her most fascinating image, Unbreakable, from the Holga Ghost Series. Luke received a certificate of Honorable mention in the Worldwide Photography award for the 15th and 16th Julia Margaret Cameron in the professional section in Fine arts. In 2023, Luke exhibited her first solo show A Journey to Wonderland, at the Gadsden Arts Center and Museum, in Quincy, Florida. She produced documentary films about the History of Photography and Vantage Cameras, The Making of Journey to Wonderland, and the Technical Aspects of the Holga Camera.