I also hated getting up at 7 in the morning to go to work, so being an artist would allow me to sleep late.
I was single at the time and being a good artist seemed like a sure-fire way to attract girls.
Tony Mendoza on Two Way Lens.
I also hated getting up at 7 in the morning to go to work, so being an artist would allow me to sleep late.
I was single at the time and being a good artist seemed like a sure-fire way to attract girls.
Tony Mendoza on Two Way Lens.
23 Comments
Standing on a chair in my father’s darkroom. I must have been 4 or 5 years old, moving images around in trays under red lights, watching them darken and take form. I was hooked.
Photography is a way to share my curiosity about the world around us.
Tony’s on the right track… a cute girl raised her hand before me freshmen year of high school and said “I want to be a photographer”… the only reason I was in that Journalism 1 class was because I was late signing up and the only other elective (weightlifting) was full.
I continue/d to make photographs because I love stories and meeting new people, and to a lesser extent trying to find order/beauty/chaos in the world around me.
In high school, a friend drafted me to join the yearbook photo staff with him. I’m the son of an artist and a chemist. I guess all that came together at once and off I went.
Being an observer and a loner. Being constantly fascinated and amazed by the world surrounding me. Always noticing things that other people seemed to think were insignificant but to me seemed charged with emotion or meaning. Photography seemed like a way of doing something with that feeling.
I quit the graphic design field years before out of boredom.
Photography rekindled the creative side that I missed. My then room mate just graduated from a Photography program and had many cameras.. that I began to borrow .
I bought a Nikon at the pawn shop began taking a group course at a local gallery.. when we had our first show my room mate commented that I did a fine job on the portrait series ” with that FM2″.
Little did he know that I used his $$$leica for the whole project when he was away working as an assistant in some other State.
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With a 10th grade education, I had two choices (imo)… live on the streets and take drugs or become an artist. I tried both, but eventually chose the latter as the wiser decision.
Dad was a moderately successful underwater photographer. After coming back from weeklong scuba trips he would sit the family down for two hour long slideshows.
I was hooked.
At my age of 18 years I tramped Egypt and the Sudan (Africa) for about 2 month.
On such a trip you can cover all photographic sujets / genres. Quite easy – just point and click.
Due to the fact I had NO cam with me I started photography immediately upon my return.
That happened 31 years ago. One day I will find out where Nikon put the shutter and go back to cover all the things I’ve missed :-)
Cheers, Reini
@Reinfried Marass, Oh incredible not having a camera during your visit to Egypt and the Sudan. Magnificent places and people to photograph. You have to go back…..
Hello Debra,
many thanks for your reply !
Back in 1979, when I had to leave the Sudan, I said to myself: I’ll be back.
In the meantime another Austrian guy made this words world-famous :-)
I’m not that much after Egypt. It’s mainly a tourist region and I guess meanwhile every pixel of Egypt is captured in any way (just like the Tuscany *smile).
The Sudan is Africa’s largest country, but at the same time the most unbeknown region – although some of the world’s best photojournalists (e.g. Salgado, Nachtwey) have worked there. And Kevin Carter’s Pulitzer 1997 shot was done there also.
All covered the refugee camps (except for Leni Riefenstahl). Maybe the everlasting war is what the country is most ‘famous’ for.
I would love to cover the terrific railway,a relict by the British Commonwealth. It’s great, I loved it. No need to ride the Trans-Sibirian, ‘The Sudanese Railway’ is more challenging by far :-)
But I guess I’m a bit too late for the party. At present the country is ‘rebuilt’ and ‘refinanced’ by China.
Of course, there still is e.g. ‘The Sudd’ – but this would be a larger ‘project’.
And Eritrea’s capital Asmara is close as well. I love Art Deco.
Btw, Debra, I was not aware of your work. Now I am. And deeply impressed (that’s rare, believe).
When I first viewed your website I thought it’s a folio of Horst P. Horst, or Steichen or Man Ray …
Short and sweet – you have a new fan.
Cheers from Austria,
Reini
@Reinfried Marass, Thank you Reini.
Early inspiration came from poring over National Geographic and Life magazines while a kid in Anchorage, Alaska and later Los Angeles, California. My innate curiosity of how our natural world works has always been a source of inspiration in my landscape/nature work. I was fortunate to be exposed to wilderness as a child.
These days I constantly tap my inner curiosity so as to expose the raw emotion I feel when I witness / photograph my subject. If I can evoke that same feeling in others I consider my efforts to be a success.
When I was 18 a close friend of mine was killed in a car crash. Travis was like my older brother and I looked up to him very much. His fiance told me about his secret hobby – photography and gave me his camera.
When I realized that Travis never had a single photo together I understood the power of the photograph and I became obsessed to learn as much as I could at all times.
That was 16 years ago and I’m still obsessed today and I still miss Travis.
I’ve always liked getting to know people and telling their story; asking questions, and distilling their answers down to the essence of the person.
It occurred to me that in many ways a photograph is a more telling and direct way of doing so. Either alone, or as part of a larger entity.
I spent a month in Tunisia, and was told beforehand that ‘you must take a camera’: I bought my first SLR, and discovered just how much I enjoyed trying to create photos.
Wanting to show people how I view the world around me.
And since I can’t draw or paint worth a darn, photography just kind of happened.
http://rcodaphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/Inspirations
But is being a photographer a sure-fire way to attract girls?! Maybe some places, but here in Bucharest you attract girls if you drive a 6 series BMW, an M6 is even better, or one of those $100,000+ Mercedes AMG models. Even with a Leica M8.2 and my American status, it’s hard to compete with the fitze crowd :)
Hey Davin .. you told me you got rid of the Leica *smile
Btw, drive American. A fancy Viper, a Vette or a Shelby outperforms the German ‘junk’ by far *lol. At least from a girl’s POV.
You are in the documentary biz, switch over to fashion and beauty :-)
Visit Dynaphos (studio equipment) in Bucharest, there are always a lot of gals (called models) around.
Cheers, Reini
In hindsight it was a learning disability and a father frustrated with his career…
I was in film-studies at university and was fascinated with editing, but found it too complicated to assemble a team to work with to create serious projects. Realized that by freezing the image, I could work on a smaller scale and have much more impact on the final outcome, shooting, directing, editing and taking all the credit!
I once saw a man and a duck standing in the middle of downtown Chicago, just staring at each other. They were there for several minutes. I swore to never be without a camera again.
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