I’ve never attended a formal photography class, but I’ve been studying the subject for most of my life.
I had a small Brownie Starmite II camera when I was a kid. I’m not sure when or where I got it, but once I started playing with it, I was hooked. The camera was difficult to load and wind, but that didn’t stop me from trying to document my childhood. I loved taking pictures. The fact that they were out-of-focus, over- or under-exposed, and/or poorly composed (due to the camera’s goofy viewfinder and my pre-pubescent aesthetic) didn’t bother me at all.
Later, I “appropriated” my father’s Asahi Pentax and began exploring the many mysteries of 35mm SLR cameras. Shutter speed, aperture, focus – everything had to be set manually. Learning by trial and error was a slow (and expensive) process, since the time between shutter release and print was about a week back then. Those little yellow Kodachrome mailers took even longer, but the added anticipation only made me more excited when the slides finally arrived.
I continued to experiment with photography as a teenager. High school art classes taught me about contrast and composition, and introduced me to artists like Ansel Adams, Man Ray, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston. My extracurricular reading material included everything from Petersen’s Big Book of Photography to Sontag’s On Photography, as well as periodicals like American Photographer, Aperture, and Zoom. Most of my visual inspiration, however, came from a curious combination of glossy, high fashion magazines and the photocopied, disposable ‘zines of the emerging punk culture.
During the 80s, I worked as an assistant at a commercial photo studio, where I quickly learned about light meters, sync cords, and medium-format cameras. I was taught how to calculate lighting ratios, adjust studio strobes, and load Hasselblad backs. Eventually, I also started to appreciate the finer technical aspects of photography, such as color temperature and the zone exposure system.
It was during this period that I started doing my own darkroom work. Initially, developing film and making contact sheets was just part of my day job, but I enjoyed the process so much that I set up a darkroom at home. There, I experimented with every aspect of black and white photography, using different film stocks (PAN-X, T-MAX, TRI-X) and developers (D-76, HC-110, MICRODOL-X) to vary the density and contrast of my negatives. I made my first enlargements, too, gently rinsing the finished prints for hours in shallow tubs of water to remove any unwanted chemical residues from the heavy Kodak Elite paper.
Throughout the 90s, I worked with my wife on various magazine assignments. At the time, I was making a living as a freelance writer, so she took most of the pictures. Watching her at work, documenting Special Forces training exercises, or Miami Beach nightclub parties, was quite an education. I was comfortable with the technical aspects of photography, but my spouse taught me how to really connect with my subjects, regardless of the situation, whether they were Green Berets or superstar DJs.
I gradually started doing more of my own photography for assignments. I became more skilled as a photojournalist, learning to compose, focus, guestimate depth-of-field, and balance the output of portable flash units with ambient lighting – all at the same time. Most importantly, I learned to be in the right place, at the right moment.
When I decided to pursue fashion photography, I had to un-learn many of my photojournalism habits. Instead of passively capturing events, I was directing the action. I had complete control over the lighting, camera angles, and even my subjects. Fortunately, I had invested in my first digital SLR around the same time, and the instant feedback I was getting from the camera’s LCD screen allowed me to achieve a certain degree of technical proficiency right away.
I’m still learning about the art and science of fashion photography, of course. I continue to read books and magazine articles on the subject. I watch PBS documentaries and YouTube videos about photographers and photography. I assist artists I admire, including Dax Balladares, Billy Coleman, and Andres Hernandez. I get valuable feedback from doing freelance work for various Miami Beach model agencies. Mostly, however, I experiment, I take pictures, I analyze the images, and repeat, repeat, repeat.
