Living the dream – with my right eye
If I must live, I may as well make sure I’m living ‘the dream
Although I have already dreamt my dream before I heard those words slip out of the mouth of a friend, I find comfort reminding myself how far I’ve come with those words.
My journey into photography was a case of taking one’s destiny into one’s hand. I have always loved the camera – at a younger age, I love standing in front of it. I was fascinated by the works of the man with a camera. It doesn’t matter whether it was a portrait, a landscape, or a bottle of coke, as long as it was captured with a camera, they always intrigued me. But as time went on, I thought – “if I’m happy in front of the camera, won’t I be dreaming being the man behind it”? That was simply the beginning of a journey that has span 20 years and still counting.
Looking back, one thing I’ve taken out of my early love for photos was diversity – in that, which genre the photographs were in didn’t really matter to me. That has really helped during my period of evolvement over the years. Hence, I’m passionate about many aspect and types of photography.
However, colleagues in my line of work still seem surprised when I show them the diversity of my work. I just say ‘ it is easier counting the photography jobs I have no expertise in, rather than the ones I do – cause the ones I don’t do are “lesser” seriously, I turned professional 20 years ago, I couldn’t possibly be photographing events alone or only shooting portraits. However, what’s important is that a photographer has a style, a style everyone recognizes every time they look at my work.
Photography started as a passion and hobby for me initially. Photography is now something that has taken me places, shown me things and brought me to people from all walks of life – businesspersons, artists, designers, families, large firms, as well as small firms and start-ups, and fellow photographers – which is all I’ve ever dreamt of and the fact that I can do this for a living is a dream come true and a testament that is now a reality! I make a living with my right eye;-)
I think photography is as much a science as it is an art.