Day and Night

North and South. Light and Dark. Up and Down. Day and Night.

These are just some of the opposites that come to mind when I think of all that has happened over the course of the last year. At about this time last year, I started taking on my interest in photography. One of the questions that most people tend to ask me is, “What made you get into photography?” While it definitely is a valid question, I rarely gave anyone the full and complete valid answer. Actually, many of my closest friends and family do not even know the answer to that. Instead, I would respond in saying, “I just needed something new.” Being that it has been about a year since I started, I wanted to finally answer that question for those who were/are interested.

My answer to starting photography has nothing to do with photography at all. There was no single life changing event. No extremely influential person who changed my life in this sense. No redefining moment. In fact, the answer lies within years worth (about 3-4 years) of experiences. Throughout high school and slightly before that, I was depressed. The circumstances of my depression are irrelevant to this topic and maybe I’ll share it one of these days, but today is not that day lol. However, knowing the fact that I was depressed is relevant as to why I took on photography and continue to stay with it today. With my depression, it was hard for me to see the way things actually were. My outlook was reflective of what was going on in my life and I responded to each situation with a growing sense of negativity. I woke up each day dreading life and whatever “terrible” thing was to happen to me that day. The feelings of my depression and stronger thoughts of sadness are hard to describe in words, especially on a computer screen, and I am sure this fact will take many by surprise because not too many people even knew about it. Despite the experience and continuous pain for many years, I now see the whole thing as a blessing in disguise.

“I just needed something new.” While I stated above that I would give people this invalid answer, this is not entirely true. There is some validity in saying that I did need something new. In contrast to the negative outlook that I had on life, I needed a way to see things the way that they should be seen. While I did pick up photography at the tail end of my depression, I took it on at the most perfect time in my life. At this point in time about a year ago, I was finally learning to see things in a different light. I always did have a keen interest in photography and getting the perfect angles, lighting, and telling stories. One day, two of my brothers, Nicolas Foong and Sean Phan, asked me to go take some photos with them and explore the city. At this point, I didn’t have a “fancy” camera like they did, so I borrowed my mom’s old point and shoot Nikon that was about 8 years old. When we went out to go take some photos, I realized that I had been looking at life at all of the wrong angles. Up to this point in my life, I was serious about pretty much everything. I just wanted to work hard, get the job done, and say I did my best. I was so caught up in this mindset that I forgot to stop for a second and recognize all of the things that life actually has to offer. By the end of that night, we were extremely excited to look at all of the photos from the city, including sneaking onto rooftops and stealing smoke bombs from China Town (sorry China Town, we were all broke). Just going through this day a year ago, my brothers taught me (without even knowing and won’t know until they read this) to ACTUALLY look at what’s around, above, and below me rather than just giving each thing a passing glance and carrying on with my way too serious life.

As Dorothea Lange once said (and that I briefly mentioned in my last blog post; sorry for the repeat), “The camera is an instrument that teaches people to see without a camera.” This is where photography and my depression play hand-in-hand. I mentioned some of these ideas in my last blog post, but this is the real reason why I took on photography at all and the Dorothea Lange quote is the epitome of how I look at photography. After being depressed for so long, it was a hard process to see positivity in anything. When I started taking photos, I found a sense of refuge. For the first time in many years, I was moving away from my depression and more towards being a positivity freak. Honestly, I may go far enough to say that photography is one of the things that may have saved my life. If not for it, who knows where I would be now. The reason I say that my depression and the experiences that came along with it were blessings in disguise is because, without it, I would never have actually decided to pick up a camera and just go with it. Picking up a camera that first time a year ago has opened so many different doors for me in the mental and physical realms of my life. Mentally, I finally progressed, seeing positivity in literally everything and seeing the beauties that each aspect of life has to offer. For the first time in my life, I finally opened up the creative side of my mind and infused that with the “serious” parts of my life. Physically, I’ve been able to turn this hobby into a small business. In doing so, I’ve reconnected with so many people that I had not spoken to in years and I met so many new people along the way. Photography opened doors that do not even relate to photography at all. Photography opened my mind to a new hunger for knowledge that I never had before. After teaching myself how to use a camera, I wanted to do so much more. I wanted to learn about people, their tendencies, how people see and do not see the world. I wanted to learn about how I can make myself better, the people around me better, and people’s lives better. Among many, many other things, photography opened my eyes to a world of endless possibilities and allows me, to this day, to see things in a new way every day, appreciate the world and the people in it around me, and fight the urges and thoughts of depression.

Thank you to anyone who took time out of their evening to read this! If you feel like you have any questions, feel free to hit me up! I'm always down to share my story or help anyone out. Also, if anyone was curious, the reason that the Blog title is "Day and Night" is because of the transformation I've made and now I'm pretty much a polar opposite of who I used to be. Also, with photography, my photos are completely different and I am much better than when I first started. The first photo was taken last night and the one below was taken about a year ago from almost exactly the same spot. I just wanted to show the difference in a year's worth of work. Thank you again if you read this far, I appreciate all of the support from every one who does just that.

Thank you to those who keep me inspired, motivated, and allow me to see all that life has to offer:

Joshua Jimenez

Jerelynne Jimenez

Lisa Jimenez

Joey Jimenez

Jasper Jimenez

Jodie-lynne Jimenez

Richelle Valentino

Ian Apellanes

Christian Gong

Sean Phan

Nicolas Foong

Nick Banaria

Jet Buensalido

Marisa Sempelsz