Monday, July 9, 2012

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

My name is Joaquin Lares and photography is something that instills great passion in me. I describe myself as essentially a travel photographer with a strong interest in portraiture. I am currently based in the Las Vegas, Nevada area.

My interest in this addicting medium began in my early teens when I was able to buy my first Canon SLR camera and I have had a love affair with photography ever since. Photography is my way down the rabbit hole, my looking glass. I use photography as a means of self-expression – I make pictures for myself, to identify with the hidden qualities of my character, to better understand my reality, and to express my interpretation of the world around me. A clearer understanding of myself and of my world allows me to explore fragments of life as an abstract form, and also to interact with people I would otherwise not be able to engage with. My goal is to use my camera like Alice’s rabbit hole, to open an unexplored world, a place of curious self-expression, but also a world of new relationships, new chances, new beginnings, and most importantly new stories.

My choice of subject comes from a place of intuition and is fueled by an insatiable desire to partake in the stories that unfold around me. Being able to travel and experience new places and people, satisfy my wanderlust and furthers my understanding of my reality. I know that I can be colorful and I know that I can be gray in my interpretation of the world but to experience life as those indigenous people I visited and shared their culture with, without bias, can and has been truly rewarding. I have traveled abroad and have seen and experienced many things in the name of photography and adventure. From walking the streets of lost Pompeii to watching the sunset over a sunken volcano in Santorini, Greece. You can truly appreciate how fleeting and persistently life is, but with my camera I am able to capture these special moments in time so that others can experience them visually.

During my studies to broaden and deepen my understanding of photography, I have developed skills and an appreciation for portrait photography with an emphasis on Fashion and Glamor styles. Just like with any other looking glass, there are always other angles and directions one can look. Keeping my focus straight-ahead and narrowed doesn’t allow me to better understand my reality but makes it stagnate and it chokes the creative process. Portrait photography lets me tap my inner child, the creative side of me. It lets me be bold and expressive, limited only by physics and my own imagination. If that isn’t living and exploring your own reality, then I missed a turn somewhere. Before this show, this life is over and the storybook closes, I plan to walk among giants in this field. 

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