My photographic formation has been a rather chaotic, instinctive, and inconsistent journey. Therefore, what I can offer you at this point is not an artistic biography, but a brief insight into my creative maturation. Some people know from an early age what they want to do in life, but it took me a long time to stop hiding behind a hobby, to start taking photography seriously, and to finally take responsibility for my work.
During my photographic “potty training”, while wrestling with cameras, lenses, light, filters, apertures, DoFs, shutter speeds, compositions, perspectives, I experimented with different genres: portrait, landscape, travel, architecture, documentary, wedding, trying to figure out my thing. All that time I was working in an office; I was never a full-time professional photographer. And I know now I will never be one. There are other ways.
The self-portrait that I'm posting here, "Autoimmune", was taken while coming to terms with my true self, with who I really am, believing that imbalance in my body was created by long years of self-denial due to fear, doubt, ignorance, and social conditioning. It took an autoimmune condition to bring my awareness to the fact that something was terribly wrong in my life, that I had surrounded myself with wrong people, that I had buried myself in a well-paid job that was sucking the life and joy out of me. This portrait marks the turning point: getting rid of all the superfluous things and toxic persons, leaving behind a secure but lifeless job and dedicating myself to my craft. It marks taking a long hard look in the mirror, accepting once and for all that I am an artist. And rising to the challenge.
