Location: Los Angeles, California.
Duration: Three years.
Staff: One.
Education: BFA in Photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and BA in Psychology with minor in Communications from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.
Cultural Influences: Brazil and Perú, but also places that I have visited. Helmut Newton, Nadav Kander, Diane Arbus and Bruce Davidson. Picasso and Max Ernst. Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris and The Conformist. Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia. The Motorcycle Diaries (the film) and Delicatessen.
Environment: Much of my shooting takes place on location. I look for elements around me that may help construct a narrative for the portrait or landscape. Other times, my role is simply to capture what I see in front of me. When shooting in the studio, I try to use lighting as a tool to transcend the confined space of the studio, in a sense, bringing what I’m creating to life.
Philosophy: I am very curious, in an almost anthropological sense, in other people’s lives, customs and rituals. Yet, as a photographer, this curiosity verges into voyeurism, as I peer into other people’s lives, looking for beauty in places that may seem ordinary at first glance. Whenever possible, I strive to shoot my subjects a little differently, adding an element of surprise, yet preserving a sense of context and the environment that surrounds them. Sometimes these elements come together seamlessly to produce a photograph that I may be quite happy about...but sometimes you just have to let go and welcome the happy accidents.