leonardobarreto.com
pro member
Hi, I am in Bolivia -- for the ones that are just tuned in, I will be based here for 3-4 years for personal family reasons -- in La Paz.
Things are going really well, the country is spectacular and local photographers are very open, so much so that I already belong to a camera club and was invited last Friday to a formal diner where we looked at images until past one in the morning. The club has a few professional and some dentist/lawyers but at a very high level.
One of the prominent commercial photographers -- he is part of this camera club -- happened to attend in 1985 a UNESCO 3-month workshop in Budapest, Hungary. The incredible coincidence of life is that I attended that workshop representing Nicaragua and we had been big buddies.
I got to La Paz a Saturday and someone from my wifes office (UN) that is a retired local photographer himself called one of the important documentary photographers who said we could meet at a cafe that same afternoon (Monday) -- difficult to do in New York -- talking with him I mentioned my Mamiya-P25 and he said that dough most everyone is working digitally -- there is no film to be found -- there was no digital back in the country and that his friend Jaime Cisneros was researching to get one, and that he was going to call him. Indeed, Jaime came soon and we where talking for 4 minutes until he said that "I met someone from Nicaragua named Leonardo once..." and I said: I am he !
The point of this post, other than say hi to Asher, Will, Nicolas and all my OPF friends, is that small markets may be interesting for photographers in terms of business opportunities and generally to have fun.
I was getting a bit bored in New York documenting art work for West Chelsea galleries.
The other aspect of Bolivia that I want to talk about --if there is interest-- is nature and photography. For what I saw in the work of photographers of the club, the landscape here is full of possibilities. It is a large country -- I think that bigger than France --.
I have no experience what so ever in organizing field workshops, but It could be interesting if other OPF members want to explore the possibility with me based on the destination...
Anyway, greetings to everyone
Things are going really well, the country is spectacular and local photographers are very open, so much so that I already belong to a camera club and was invited last Friday to a formal diner where we looked at images until past one in the morning. The club has a few professional and some dentist/lawyers but at a very high level.
One of the prominent commercial photographers -- he is part of this camera club -- happened to attend in 1985 a UNESCO 3-month workshop in Budapest, Hungary. The incredible coincidence of life is that I attended that workshop representing Nicaragua and we had been big buddies.
I got to La Paz a Saturday and someone from my wifes office (UN) that is a retired local photographer himself called one of the important documentary photographers who said we could meet at a cafe that same afternoon (Monday) -- difficult to do in New York -- talking with him I mentioned my Mamiya-P25 and he said that dough most everyone is working digitally -- there is no film to be found -- there was no digital back in the country and that his friend Jaime Cisneros was researching to get one, and that he was going to call him. Indeed, Jaime came soon and we where talking for 4 minutes until he said that "I met someone from Nicaragua named Leonardo once..." and I said: I am he !
The point of this post, other than say hi to Asher, Will, Nicolas and all my OPF friends, is that small markets may be interesting for photographers in terms of business opportunities and generally to have fun.
I was getting a bit bored in New York documenting art work for West Chelsea galleries.
The other aspect of Bolivia that I want to talk about --if there is interest-- is nature and photography. For what I saw in the work of photographers of the club, the landscape here is full of possibilities. It is a large country -- I think that bigger than France --.
I have no experience what so ever in organizing field workshops, but It could be interesting if other OPF members want to explore the possibility with me based on the destination...
Anyway, greetings to everyone
.
