This is my personal web site, I work on it in the time my professional, personal and family obligations allow, also in the spare time I have from traveling in my Country and doing photography.
I begun my long jurney with photoraphy over 30 years ago, I used to take my father's Leica IIIf on afternoon escapades througout Gazcue (a residential area of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) in full mimic of a great photographer but devoid of film and ideas as to what photography was about...
 Leica IIIf But time in it's perpetual habit passed, and the contact with the Leica and the countless editions of National Geographic plus many books on photographic technique as well as on adventure, geography, antropology and the like behind me... I was struck by luck !
Luck came by having as my brother in law one of the foremost filmakers in the Dominican, at that time, Max sold his skills as a comercial, architectural and just about anything that made some money, all this before being the important producer of today.
During the times we passed together, the ocations I whent with him on his assignements and his disposition to allow me to use his darkroom at my leasurea, gave a giant leap to my interests and focused my dedication to "learn to do things well, fololw the rules and methodology. Follow the temp and time tables 'till you get the best results possible, never shortcuts, what is not achieved with the pertinent technique IS NO GOOD, THROW IT AWAY... begin again ! " -words I heard many a times from my friend Max Rodriguez.
During those times I also got to know "Professional equipment".
My camera was a Pentax MX with a cauple of lenses that were much more sold to me by a Ritz salesman rather than bought by me for a reason, but Max showed me a Linhof Technika, a Technikardan, one Rolleiflex f 3.5, a rotating turret Durst enlarger with three lenses... well, the real stuff, me and my Pentax were plain newbies... diletants...¡
The Pentax was and is an excelent 35mm camera, no doubt about that, I remeber her when nostalgic. She made me find ways of solving problems inspite of her intrinsic simplicity, a real teacher.
When I changed her I also changed brands, and got myself the brand and model I believed that would eliminate all limitations and openm all possibilities, a Nikon F2AS. Still at that time I attributed a grat value to brands and models of equipment I had or wished to have.
Photography is "produced", not by chance or coincidence, you have to learn the technique, to use your equipment, to pre-visualise... to do the effort and put in the time. If the ligh is not right nothing will fix it, the shott will be crap and not even Photoshop will fix it.
All this is what I learned during those years, it took a lot of hard work and a lot of silencing my ego that used to yell al every ocation "it's a great photo, fantastic, a keeper..."
But I had to think "in comparison to what...?
At some moment in time I begun to ask myself -why famous and renown photographers were recognized as such ?. What makes this or that one important or more so within the evolution and history of photography as an art form. What separates the editorial and documentary type of work from the press or advertising..or fashion... where are the lines drawn...
The most candid question is "..why if my photos are "good", my friends and family like them..I am not an important photographer too and can't even sell my work...?
It's an excelent principle of the aspiring photographer (an apprentice of any art will require the same I believe) that takes his craft seriously to understand photography as it trascends the shot and copy of one's image and place it within photography as a world in it's own.
In all branches of photography there are great names, Bresson, Adams, Weston, Avedon, Cunningham, Abbott, Lange, Álvarez Bravo, Salgado, etc. There are the many -unknown to us- names of equally good and acomplished photographers that make excelent work every day and make their living of their craft and art.
But, the difference between those famous artists that have grown to great proportions or the magnificent professionals and amateurs that make unbelievable images vs all the rest that modestly enjoy their images IS NOT THE EQUIPMENT THEY USE.
In the end, all cameras do the same, some easier, some faster, some provide more for this ..and some others more of that... but in the eng, the images are made by the photographer, NOT THE CAMERA
In my moment in life, I find the dedication to the pursuit of expression via artistic photography a very exigent endeavour, it requires that one shed mold and form of how to be and think and of how to see and feel.
It requires that you "feel with your sight".
I see both for good and bad, that the technology of photographic hardware (cameras, lenses, pc software, etc.) makes believe or feel (apeal) that the escence of what is the realm of photography as an art form, depends heavily on this technological aspects.
This is a mistake and the result of the extremelly agressive marketing strategys of manufacturers in their quest for sales.
Nobody can tell what camera took which image, nor the artist will care...
BEING TRANSLATED...SORRY...COME BACK SOON !
The text is being translated, please have patience...
Sabe Usted que marca de pinceles usa o usaba su pintor favorito...?
El equipo es la herramienta, pero solo el fotografdo hace sus fotos.
Veo a cada momento la interpretacion del concepto "digital" como sinonimo de lo manipulado y desprendido del mundo real de donde provienen las experiencias que se "capturan"...
Las nuevas generaciones de artistas graficos son expertos en Photoshop (por supuesto marca registrada) son tan buenos en su oficio que ya no conocen el limite de lo que es una buena fotografia, hacen y montan, arreglan y mergen, pero ese es un nuevo arte, no es ni la fotografia, ni el dibujo, ni la pintura... es la nueva modalidad de la ilustracion digital, el digital imaging.
Es el arte nuevo de lo digital, no lo confunda jamas con otros artes...por favor.
Es como si las artes graficas en general, y la fotografia en particular, hubiesen nacido el dia que el primer pixel se almaceno en los circuitos solidos de alguna tarjeta por ahi.
La verdad es muy distante de esto, la fotografia es un medio de expresion cual desde su principio como medio hasta en la actualidad, depende de la interpretacion de lo que nos rodea, no de su engendro en una pantalla de computadora.
Es abstracta en su ontologia, en su origen y en su proposito.
Solamente el encuadre de la imagen atravez del visor hace ya la toma abstracta , ya que deja de ser parte de su entorno, ya es la que seleccionamos, ya es algo en si, no es ya parte de lo que la rodeaba.
Pero no deseo dejar mala impresion de lo que he dicho arriba, me encanta la lustracion digital, me parece realmente interesante, pero no es paralela a la fotografia, no nace en el mismo lugar.
En fin, la fotografia y yo venimos de lejos y llegaremos juntos hasta el final, es mi medio de expresion, me envuelve en su magia cuando oigo a personas que ven mis trabajos y se sienten tocados por las imagenes.
y pienso... estaran ellos tambien sintiendo por sus hojos..?
Leo Salazar / 2005
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