Loanne Slapar of Lslapar Photography is exhibiting a series of landscape and nature photographs at Café 3106, 3106 MacArthur Blvd in Oakland throughout the month of January. Her vividly hued framed photographic prints and prints on canvas are already a topic of conversation at the café, and she sold her first photo soon after the exhibit began. Many of the images depict exotic places the Oakland photographer has visited.
“Beautiful photos loaded with color and pleasing composition,” said Michele LeProhn of Communité Table upon seeing the photographs. “I wish I were visiting these places.”
Slapar has exhibited in a group show at Creative Framing & Gallery in Oakland in the past, but the Café 3016 show is her first solo exhibit. The show runs January 3 through January 31, 2014 with a photo art reception opening between 2pm and 4pm on January 19, 2014.
“I am from Oakland,” said Slapar. “I moved to Oakland when I was 15 Years old and went to Oakland Tech. I was always interested in taking photographs. I learned photography by taking photos with an instamatic. I took one class from a photographer but other than that I am entirely self-taught.”
According to Slapar, Oakland’s Creative Framing & Gallery has played a tremendous role in encouraging her to take herself seriously as a photographer. Referring to a close-up of an ornamental plum tree, she says:
“This photo is called The Perfect Picture. When my friend Heather at Creative Framing and Gallery saw it she named it. That was how I was inspired to continue to take photos and to begin to make prints. That's an Oakland tree, by the way. It is in my front yard.”
Slapar has been creating framed prints for a couple of years now, but The Perfect Picture is printed on canvas, giving it a paint-like appearance.
“Several of these are on canvas,” said Slapar. “I wanted to see how it would come out and I am very pleased with it.”