The First Portrait I Ever Took

The first portraits I ever shot, playing with light and shadows. How does a line (re)define a face? Los Angeles, 1995

Going through an old hard drive I found pictures, which I haven't seen in years. It's almost as good of a feeling as going through old negatives, but not quiet. 

Everything here was shot on 35mm film between 1995 and 2002. When I took some of these I wasn't even old enough to vote. I made the jump to digital relatively late in the game, sometime in 2008 with a Nikon D300. Looking back now I wonder if I have actually devolved in some aspects by shooting digitally. Have my aesthetic priorities been dictated too much by the medium, shouldn't it be the other way around?

I see the creative and technical questions I was contemplating back then were similar to an ideal I still strive for and I'm surprised at how visible by photographic influences were. 

The first portraits I ever shot, playing with light and shadows. How does a line (re)define a face? Los Angeles, 1995

My first still life, 35mm film in 1995

Joshua in the bathtub. Starting in 2002 I began to explore environmental portraits. Sankt Anton, Austria 2002

The Louvre. I started out with a lot of architectural photography, I loved lines and the relationship of shapes. Plus buildings are less intimidating to capture then strangers and easier as they tend not to move. Paris, France 2001

Santa Clause Island. Starting in 2001 I began to really explore environmental portraits, it took time to find the courage to point a camera at a stranger. Turkey 2002

I remember being surprised to see an elderly gentleman at a "youth" hostel and wondering what his life story was; why was he here, did he have people that loved him, was he traveling or living in the hostel full-time? I wanted to capture the questions I had. Berlin, Germany 2001

The idea of ethics also cropped into my head as I began to travel and to "steal" moments with my camera. I often wondered where was the line? When was it time to put down the camera and live the moment and respect it. Istanbul, Istanbul  Turkey 2002

Between 2001 and 2004 I traveled and lived in various places around the world, I met lifelong friends and learned much about life and myself. They were also the years in which I built the foundation to my photographic style. I pointed the camera at everything that interested me and began to press my own boundaries like a two year old child to discover what I could and couldn't do, what I liked and didn't like.

I'd like to return to that level of curiosity...in everything in life.

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