Chicago, Illinois
cargocollective.com/
You stated you live in Chicago, how does "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" strike you, can you relate to the youthful freedom and rebelliousness that goes on in that movie to yourself?
That movie actually strikes me in a very pleasant manner. In fact my friends & I have visited and gawked at Cameron's house located in a suburb of Chicago several times just to appreciate the architectural beauty of it. But back to the question, of course to a degree I can relate to the spontaneous theme throughout that movie. Ferris is the type of person that we, not only in our youth, want to see ourselves as. The carefree but simultaneously well articulated person that's got it all figured out. The movie exhibits something that we all want... A string of moments free of responsibility and basically having fun.
What was your moment of clarity like when you decide to drop your
pursuit of a safety career to shoot for your dreams of being a
photographer?
I was taking Communications classes at a junior
college for journalism and realized that it wasn't really what I had
envisioned it to be. The idea of being a journalist for the rest of my
life after school disintegrated rather quickly. Still having an interest
with reportage I started playing with the idea of photojournalism. So I
took some photo classes and started working for the school's paper. It
was during that time that really revitalized my interest with the
medium. Coincidentally after taking a color class where I was initially
introduced to William Eggleston's work, he had a retrospective show at
The Art Institute here in Chicago. That show was what cemented my
inclination of pursuing some sort of future with photography. I was in
such awe and overwhelmed by the fact that these photographs could affect
me in such way that my ambition to learn more about the medium
exploded.
What is important in this life for everyone? For yourself?
I believe that it's so simple that it gets complex. We're all hedonistic one way or another, we just want to be happy.
You stated in the bio you sent us that you want the viewer of your work to feel empathetic. Explain this further?
There's the portion that I'm sharing with them and then what they bring
to the work. Their own connotations, their own punctums aside from just
what I've brought forth. With empathy I just hope that they can relate
to the particular emotion that's being conveyed. Which is ideal in any
medium. & I primarily strive for empathy cause it can be applied to
either negative or positive aspects of life. It isn't exclusive to one
side of the spectrum of emotions. There's more involved with practicing
empathy rather than crudely identifying what someone's work is trying to
point out. When someone feels something it should be easy to get &
hard to forget.
Is it thought provoking being a delivery boy, being that you see dozens of people a week, have you ever though of photographing them?
Once in a while yes because some seem so unique that I'm taken off guard or there are just coincidental qualities about them that I find intriguing. For the most part though I haven't bridged that conversation of asking to take any of their photographs because not only am I far too shy to but I'm a little apprehensive about involving that work with 'work'. I don't wanna get any complaints, that's probably an overly cautious thought on my part but yeah. On another side of this whole delivery gig... I get short-lived accesses into these beautiful residential high rises and office buildings. I've been carrying a point & shoot around to at least photograph that a little bit.
What are your plans for 2012? What do you plan to do to make your dream of pursuing photography?
Right now, all I'm looking forward to is spring
break and the summer. I'm in dire need of relaxation. These days lately
have been so saturated with either work or school that I've seldom had
time to myself or for my own work. But in regards to actual ambitions,
this current semester and the next I surely intend to take equally
challenging courses. Although a few have been incredibly arduous I feel
that it's the only way to kind of widen your horizons so to speak.
Bluntly, I just aspire to do more.
