A photographer is more than their photos, they are their life story, their work, their passion, and their dedication. A photographer is always expected to look for and find that perfect beautiful image by the rest of the world but with no time or money that job becomes difficult sometimes. There is no perfect image to the world, note the fact that most photographers only become known after their death because while their photos may have not been the perfect image at the time they are at another point in time. See that's the thing time moves so incredibly quickly that a photographer has to look to the future. Hernan Zenteno is the photographer just described: dedicated, passionate, and future looking but that doesn't make his work easy.
He was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina by his mother and father who never supported his love of photography. Although his father himself was a photographer, he never wanted his son to become one. He wanted Hernan to follow a more money making and practical career like science, law or engineering. He studied engineering and actually graduated with a degree but then quickly realized it wasn't the career he wanted to work as for his entire life so he started studying journalism. He studied journalism at the University of Lomas de Zamara for about a year before again changing his path to social communications. In an online interview he states that, "It was obvious to me that photography was what I loved doing, and I had to follow my passion in order to be happy with my life.".
After graduating with a degree in journalism and social communications he started working at a newspaper but while he was there he started his career as a photographer. Even though he had a job as a journalist, he didn't feel like that was enough so he started playing around with an old camera of his fathers which was an old Nikon F. He then found an enlarger in an archive and created his own dark room where he would develop his photos. In 2001 he became a full time photographer and left his job as a journalist to look for a job without the support of his parents. After finding a job as a photojournalist for a newspaper located in Argentina he pursued his individual projects and was able to make himself known through the country. He participated in Galleries and art shows whenever the opportunity was available to him. He doesn't have much time to take photos because of his actual job but says that he uses all of his free time to take photos. This is barely the start of his career as a photographer and he still has a long way to go.
The emotions that his photos arise in someone is heartbreakingly beautiful, he photographs every aspect of life: the good and the bad. "Photo impact is a mystery, if there was a formula it would make life much easier." He answers when asked what he believes is the impact of his photos. It creates a change in people, people see things like the starving children of Portugal in his photos and their heart feels something it causes a change internally on people. "It's worth it to show everything that needs to be corrected and everything that's worth living for." This is the idea that he says be follows when he thinks about the impact he wants to have on people's lives. He wants to show everything that needs to be changed to make our world a better place but he also wants people to see the beauty around them in the world.
To this day he doesn't have the support of his parents, his father died not understanding his sons love for photos and his mother who is still alive is just now starting to understand her sons passion. This shows what he has sacrificed in order to follow his love for photography, he doesn't know where his career will be in five, ten years but he still chooses to follow his passion and to impact even one person with his photos makes it worth it. That is what makes a great photographer, what's behind the photos what we don't know about the image were looking at, that's what makes an almost perfect image.
Work Cited:
http://zenteno.photoshelter.com
http://blog.picsart.com/post/interview-with-argentine-photojournalist-hernan-zenteno
Hernan Zenteno at hzenteno@gmail.com on 12.15.14
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