Photographer as Activist Sheds a New Light on the Landscape : Art: 39-year-old Newport Beach resident says she works from ‘a very intuitive place.’ Her multiple images offer a surreal look at the environment.

Photographer Elizabeth Jennings thinks of herself as a social activist with a camera, one whose images often portray her concerns for the environment while touching on some of the earth’s more intangible elements.

To accomplish this, Jennings starts with landscapes and creates abstract, multiple-image color Cibachrome photographs. She also frequently pushes the film speed to give the photos a grainier texture and heighten the sense of mystery.

“I am working from a very intuitive place,” the 39-year-old Newport Beach photographer explained. “In other words, I am going out and photographing the land, the rocks, plants and trees. Then I come back and I do the multiple images on the light table. I am not really thinking about the final image, but responding to the environment.

An exhibit of Jennings’ photographs is on display at the Cypress College Photography Gallery through April 27. Six images are on view, including three 16-by-20-inch prints, two triptychs and the “Birthing Series,” which combines six 11-by-14 prints from the same negative, matted together. Jennings considers that work to be the most powerful of the show.

In creating “Birthing Series,” Jennings said that as she printed the image, it seemed to radiate an internal light. That impression inspired her to print a series of images, in different orientations, that would make the light appear to move across the surface over the course of the six prints.

“I’m exploring a primordial sense of place, because the imagery becomes abstract and takes on another life as its own,” Jennings said. “Because I am taking isolated parts of the landscape and (because of) the way they come together in the multiple images, they become almost humanlike.”

As a member of the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Jennings helps develop exhibitions for the center’s satellite space at Hutton Center. Her photographs have been exhibited at the Irvine Fine Arts Center, BC Space Gallery and Laguna Festival of Arts.

Jennings grew up in Pasadena and graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, emphasis on sculpture. But during her university work, Jennings discovered that she enjoyed the artistic aspect of photography and, because she found the spontaneity of it more conducive to her temperament, she enrolled in photography classes at Orange Coast College.

“I enjoy all the processes and stages you go through to get the images,” Jennings said. “You can be really intuitive.”

While studying photography, she became influenced by the work of Jerry Uelsmann, known for surreal works with multiple images or composite imagery.

“He did have an impact,” she said. “I responded to his ability to challenge our sense of what reality is.”

Abstract color landscape photographs by Elizabeth Jennings will be on display at the Cypress College Photo Gallery until April 27. The Gallery is in the Technical Education Building 1 at Cypress College, 9200 Valley View St., Cypress. Hours: Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. until noon. Admission is free. Information: (714) 826-4511.