I picked up photography almost by accident. I needed one more class to fill my school schedule, and photography was the option that fit. I borrowed my dad's Canon AE-1, shot Ilford FP4, and taught myself to develop it in the school darkroom. Color came later, on Agfa and Fuji slide film, once black and white stopped being enough.
These days I work as a product designer, the more analytical side of design. Photography is where that instinct goes to play instead of solve problems.
I notice signage everywhere: the typography, the fading paint, the strange contradictions of a piece of text trying to tell people what to do. I also can't walk past a doorway, or wall, or table without stopping, if the light's doing something interesting or the colors are forming a shape I like.
I tried making photography my job once. Clients, commissions, being told what to shoot and how. I hated it. It drained the thing I loved about picking up a camera in the first place. So I went back to design and kept photography mine: something I do on work breaks, on the commute, on weekends, on vacation, entirely on my own terms.
I shoot a lot in New York, but the American Southwest - California, Nevada, Texas - has given me some of my favorite work. After the density of New York, the open space changes what you notice, and what's worth stopping for.
