"The Mariachi’s Sombrero" by Karen Kolb.
"The Mariachi's Sombrero" by Karen Kolb. (Karen Kolb — Contributed Photo)
Chico >> Chico photographer Karen Kolb is still waiting for her hit: A single image to hit platinum, get the photographer recognized and pay for more photo paper.
"Photographs and visual art, its like music," she said. "It's intellectual property. The way you make money that way is you get a hit. If one photo becomes popular and people buy it over and over, you make bank."
Kolb's soon-to-be-hits can be previewed in "Seeing Things: Observations of the Overlooked," currently on display at the Chico Sports Club cafe, 260 Cohasset Road.
"That song kept coming into my head from the 'Sound of Music,'" Kolb said. " 'these are a few of my favorite things.' So I just wanted to show some stuff I've never shown before."
Her lens zooms on a basket of fruit at the farmers market illuminating plump berries, a train cart with streaks of rain and hoods of rusted cars are a few of Kolb's subjects in the show.
"There's a lot of manipulation you can do without being a technical wizard," she said. "I mean just by looking to where it lies in front, you are capturing light."
Kolb's images display vibrant details alluding to the objects' true magnitude and she believes her images aren't ready to be seen unless they're fully dressed in a fancy frame.
"There's only a very few (photos) that actually get to grow up and be in a frame out of the thousands of times you click a button," she said.
Kolb is best noted for her Chico snow series. With just three rolls of film clanking in her coat, Kolb set out with a friend to explore the winter wonderland in 1988.
Serene photos of Bidwell Mansion cloaked in fluffy white powder gives the Bidwell house a wintery veil many have never experienced.
The photos are spectacular and seeing Chico covered in snow evokes a certain camouflaged charm.
Kolb lives by the motto, "shoot it where you can find it" because she doesn't have a studio at the moment and her canvas is anything she walks by during her day.
"I shoot more off-the-cuff," Kolb said."I love taking pictures and I took some good ones in the band but I didn't ever think I'd ever go this far."
Her first gig with photography began in the '80s.
Kolb fronted '80s cover band Up, Down, Strange and when the band — living on a budget — needed promo photos, she stepped in. She'd set up the frame, timer and then run into the shot.
"Back then a sweet mullet was a fine, fine thing to have," she said skimming through her early black and white film photos of Up, Down, Strange.
Kolb has since traded in film photography for digital and the mullet for a modern pixie cut.
She found a common artistic comfort in photography as she did with performing but she said there's always a struggle when being an artist.
"It's hard to get people's attention long enough to hear a song," Kolb said. "But you can see something faster. It'll catch your eye and you can grab people's attention that way."
Close up photography is Kolb's subtle and artistic way to get viewers to slow down and admire the detail they speed by.
"Everybody's so busy now. Who has time to notice anything?" she said. "Who has time to get milk on the way home? Everybody's just so busy now. Society just demands it of you."
With a skewed view, the image lacks a sense of scale offering viewers a varied view to something like flashing lights on a carousel.
"All I need is a hit photo, if not I'm trying out for 'The Voice.' I give up," she said with a laugh.
"Seeing Things" ends Friday.