How Photography Changed My Life

As far back as I can remember I have been making art. In my youth I did a lot of drawing and painting and was quite good at it, but that all changed in 2014 when I moved to San Francisco after being accepted to attend SFSU to study the studio fine arts. All my life I have considered myself an artist, but it was here, in the darkest time of my life, when this old film camera and photography showed me how poorly I was living my life. It is only clear, in hindsight, how unfocused and distracted I was from my art and schoolwork— I would be rushing assignments, and sometimes turning them in unfinished. I was struggling to complete my personal art projects as well. Which led to many unfinished artworks that still have gone nowhere, except into a dark closet or behind a dusty bookshelf. I needed something to revolutionize the way I made art and this little camera was the first step.

It was only by chance that I enroll in a darkroom photography class on my 4th semester at the university. Up until that point in my life I had no interest in photography. I had used cameras before, of course. Usually just to make digital copies of my physical artworks. However, I believed it to be an inferior and flawed art-form compared to drawing, painting, sculpting, and the like. After enrolling, I bought my first camera I would truly own and use.

Enrolling in the photography course and buying a new camera didn’t change me overnight. I was very unmotivated at first to use the camera. So, like before, I foolishly procrastinated until the last minute of the assignment and literally snapped pictures of what was on my desk at home or what was on the way to the university campus and turned that in for critique. But after a few rolls of film and playing in the darkroom for a couple months, I started to take pictures with more purpose. Instead of snapping away mindlessly of what was in front of me. I started to photograph subjects that were significant and memorable to me. These could be people, places, or objects. To this day these early photographs stand as a testament of record and a memory in time. From the moment I picked up the camera, I unconsciously started down a new path, of putting down the paint brush.

Photography gave me the structure and discipline I was craving in my life, but ultimately it was up to me to make changes in order to progress.

By the end of my first photography course I was in love with photography, my camera, and the darkroom. I was spending sun up to sun down making prints all day in the darkness. I started experimenting with my own hand drawn masks and burning methods to create interesting and fun effects on my prints. Before I knew it my camera became my constant companion— it went with me to class, to the grocery store, to the post office, and on holiday. All in the meanwhile, I was photographing many new and wonderful things that caught my eye.

That was 6 years ago now and I still feel like the student seeing his print appear in the developing tray for the first time. This is but one of the steps on my path of being an artist. Since I started taking pictures, I have left all other art forms behind. It is now my primary form of self expression. Sometime in the future I will tell more about my earlier days of making art.

One of the first photographs I ever took with my new film camera.

Although I have left my drawing and painting days behind me, it is still an important and vital part of my identity. I would not be who I am today without the years of practice and training. Photography is a huge detour on my artistic career, but it is definitely a detour that is here to stay. Today I continue the love of creating and producing art— through photography.

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