Photo-synthesis
by Manuel Lipton
You could say my obsession with photography began as a child, when I snapped a photograph from the air during my very first plane ride. I had looked out the window and saw that, below me, shadows were being cast by clouds in the sky. It moved me so much that I snapped a picture with the small disposable camera that had been entrusted to me. I suspect that was the beginning of my fascination with light and capturing light on film. I got serious about photography the summer before my junior year of high school, when I received an old Nikon camera for my birthday from my granduncle Kingsley. I spent the entire summer at home in Ketchikan taking pictures of Alaska and people in my life. My first photographs were of my friends working their summer jobs—like Heather, who tagged along with her mom, a bus driver, and helped give tours of the city to groups of elderly folk. My best friends Johnson and Perry gutted fish at the salmon hatchery, where they would put all the orange eggs into a gigantic, smelly fish bin. (I took a lot of bloody fish pictures that my parents felt obligated to hang in their living room. I visited home recently and am proud to report that they are still there.)
When I left for college in New Mexico, I majored in engineering, but my love for photography remained. I took an introductory photography class and I have to confess that my grades suffered for all the time I spent in the darkroom. I don’t regret it, though.
I currently reside in San Francisco, California with my cat Joseph and girlfriend Jamie. Neither enjoys having their picture taken. Though photography is my chief passion, in my spare time I also enjoy writing short plays and directing short films, as well as jogging along the Embarcadero and experimenting with Indian cooking.
You can email me with any comments, questions, or suggestions at manuelshutterbug@yahoo.com
