Ever since I could remember, I have always been fascinated with pictures.
Whether as a photo or as a drawing, they are, in my opinion, the storytellers of our lives.
You may disagree with me and say that books tell the stories, but let’s face it, there’s a reason why the old saying goes, “pictures tell a thousand words.” The role of visual communication has played a big one in my life. I have had the good fortune of learning how to take good pictures and use them to convey the type of emotion you would get from reading a story.
At the age of eighteen, I started using a variety of cameras like 110, Polaroid and a consumer level 35mm. I’ve taken pictures of my family and friends, starting from my home town New York City, to different states and countries throughout my travel, while I served as a soldier in the United States Army.
In March of 1992, while stationed in Korea, I met my husband who, was a photographer for the military unit he was assigned to. He introduced me to the world of professional photography. I learned how to develop film and process prints in the darkroom. By the end of that year I owned my first professional level 35mm camera. That camera changed my life. I was able to capture images in a totally different way than I had been. The other pictures were good, but now, with ability to change lenses, I was able to take pictures that had more feeling and more meaning in what I saw in people, places and things.
In October of 1993, my husband and I went into partnership together. We took pictures of couples, singles, models, weddings, babies, authors, musicians and the occasional pet.
After moving to Cleveland, in 2001, I began freelancing as a photographer and graphic designer. Designing advertisements for a variety of organizations in addition to taking pictures of live performances at concert venues, movie and music video sets as well as becoming a photojournalist, I had the opportunity to explore my creativity even further.
There’s a sense of value in the pictures I take and the work I design, and it has to do with the sense of emotions, (the personal side.) How I frame a subject as I take the picture and where I place the picture when I include it in a design, will determine how or what a person is going to feel once they see it. They can make you smile, and they can make you cry. They can even make you hungry. I like to think, no matter what I take a picture of, it will have a positive reaction.
Over the years, I’ve been involved in a variety of projects that involve visual communications, and just about all them require the use of photography. Pictures allow me to reminisce and as, “Remember when…”, and “remember that time…?” When I grow old and my memory fades, I’ll always have my pictures to remind me of what I looked like as a young girl, and what my son looked like when he was a baby, and how my meeting my husband has turned me into the photographer I am today.
No matter where I go, I’ll always have a camera in my hand, changing lenses-changing life.