#21 - Hector Emanuel - September 9, 2017 - Washington, DC
Sunday, October 22, 2017
I met Hector sometime back sometime around 1994 or 1995. We met through a mutual photographer friend, Rebecca Roth, and all three of us would often pal around together at gatherings at her house in Washington, DC. All of us were 20-something-year-old photographers eager to get out and work in the profession. Hector had recently finished a masters degree in physics from Virginia Tech back in the early 1990's but discovered that photography was more of a calling.
When Hector was 13, in 1981, he immigrated to the United States with his parents and sister from Peru. Since that time the Washington, D.C., area has been his home. As he says.. "In many ways, I've lived a hybrid life based on values, traditions, and experiences of two countries, which is nothing unusual for immigrants. But as I've gotten older, and the reality that I have lived in Washington for about three-fourths of my life has set in, I have become more nostalgic for Peru - family, food, friends, traditions."
A few years ago Hector undertook a long-term project exploring his Peruvian roots; he documented daily life, festivals, and traditions in Lake Titicaca, Peru. You can see his wonderful work on his website here. The Washington Post Magazine featured his images and story here. Hector has traveled to many places around the world - he photographed the civil conflict in Colombia and photographed the Chiapas conflict in Mexico, the 2004 Haitian coup d'état among other events. He undertook a long term project (three years) to document the building of the US/Mexico border wall that was being constructed under the presidency of George W. Bush. "I did a road trip in and out of Mexico and the US from Nogales, Arizona/Mexico to the Pacific ocean documenting the building of the “wall”". See some of that work here. He photographed haunting images for Time Magazine after the mass shooting at Virginia Tech.
Hector is one of a handful of photographers I know who primarily work in black in white. He also is one of a handful of photographers who actually still gets to occasionally shoot film for magazine assignments - which is a very rare thing these days. The majority of his paid assignment work is digital now - but in his personal work, he mixes a hybrid of film and digital.
During our photo shoot, Hector mentioned that he might take weeks or months to actually process film and look at it after it has been exposed. I explained that I wasn't good at waiting. I wanted to see the images as soon as possible. Many photographers are aware of the benefit of waiting to look at images long after they have been shot. There is an emotional disconnect from the event to the edit. Separating the two with some time can help in the editing process. Photographer Garry Winogrand was famous for waiting years to look at images after he made them.
I photographed Hector near his home in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. He is pictured with a 50 plus-year-old Brooks Plaubel Veriwide 100 medium format film camera that he purchased a few years ago. We spent about an hour or so making the images and I used available light for the entire shoot.
When Hector was 13, in 1981, he immigrated to the United States with his parents and sister from Peru. Since that time the Washington, D.C., area has been his home. As he says.. "In many ways, I've lived a hybrid life based on values, traditions, and experiences of two countries, which is nothing unusual for immigrants. But as I've gotten older, and the reality that I have lived in Washington for about three-fourths of my life has set in, I have become more nostalgic for Peru - family, food, friends, traditions."
A few years ago Hector undertook a long-term project exploring his Peruvian roots; he documented daily life, festivals, and traditions in Lake Titicaca, Peru. You can see his wonderful work on his website here. The Washington Post Magazine featured his images and story here. Hector has traveled to many places around the world - he photographed the civil conflict in Colombia and photographed the Chiapas conflict in Mexico, the 2004 Haitian coup d'état among other events. He undertook a long term project (three years) to document the building of the US/Mexico border wall that was being constructed under the presidency of George W. Bush. "I did a road trip in and out of Mexico and the US from Nogales, Arizona/Mexico to the Pacific ocean documenting the building of the “wall”". See some of that work here. He photographed haunting images for Time Magazine after the mass shooting at Virginia Tech.
Hector is one of a handful of photographers I know who primarily work in black in white. He also is one of a handful of photographers who actually still gets to occasionally shoot film for magazine assignments - which is a very rare thing these days. The majority of his paid assignment work is digital now - but in his personal work, he mixes a hybrid of film and digital.
During our photo shoot, Hector mentioned that he might take weeks or months to actually process film and look at it after it has been exposed. I explained that I wasn't good at waiting. I wanted to see the images as soon as possible. Many photographers are aware of the benefit of waiting to look at images long after they have been shot. There is an emotional disconnect from the event to the edit. Separating the two with some time can help in the editing process. Photographer Garry Winogrand was famous for waiting years to look at images after he made them.
I photographed Hector near his home in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. He is pictured with a 50 plus-year-old Brooks Plaubel Veriwide 100 medium format film camera that he purchased a few years ago. We spent about an hour or so making the images and I used available light for the entire shoot.
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