[KELP JOURNAL] Mackenzie you have the honor of being the first artist/photographer to be featured twice on The Wave! Enquiring minds want to know: what brought you back to Kelp?
[MACKENZIE GELLNER] I didn’t realize, I feel very honored! Thank you very much for having my work featured. I’ve always found being by the ocean brings me happiness, and so Kelp’s focus on oceanic themes drew me to reading it and submitting my own work.
[KJ] Last time we talked about you looking for stillness in your photographs, but while these photos aren’t actually busy per say, they evoke a different feeling. Was that intentional?
[MG] I don’t think I consciously considered it, but I agree with you that this series evokes a different feeling than the last. With this series, when I view them altogether, they almost make me feel like I’m Alice about to fall down the rabbit hole into Wonderland.
[KJ] There is definitely an other-worldly vibe about these photos, perhaps due to the use of the mirror, can you talk about how you got these shots?
[MG] Yeah, I think the use of the mirror allowed for two different viewpoints to show in one photo, which resulted in that other-worldly vibe be to be present. While taking the photos, I tried to make each different through location yet similar through the usage of the mirror. I would set up the mirror where I knew what was being reflected would be noticeably different than what was in the rest of the frame. I think this then created the effect of a world within another world feeling.
[KJ] Are you working on any new projects that we might see out on the internet or The Wave any time soon?
[MG] Regarding photography, I don’t have any new projects I’m working on currently, but I do also love to write, so I have been working on both poetry and fiction. A poem of mine will be published in Beyond Words Literary Magazine's anthology set for January 2024.
Mackenzie (Mac) Gellner born in New Westminster, British Columbia, completed her Bachelor of Communication in journalism at Mount Royal University. Her articles have been published in CBC News, the Florence University of the Arts magazine Blending, The Calgary Journal, and The Reflector. Her photography has been published in Kelp Journal and soon WA Magazine, and her poetry published in "You Might Need To Hear This" and, in January 2024, Beyond Words Literary Magazine's anthology. Mac also, during field school in India, co-produced a short documentary on self-expression with the Sri Ram Ashram.