The Bay Area Native

The local photography series will include an interview and relevant information about local photographers. Although the set of questions remain the same, each photographer has sent in their different viewpoint and opinion on several subjects.

Photographer : Brad Brockman
Website: www.bradbrok.com

TBAN: When did you become interested in photography?
BB: Two years ago, really. A bit after a turning point in my life, but I’ve always been the boy with the camera.

TBAN: What equipment are you currently using to photograph?
BB: There’s too much equipment! Mostly Polaroids, large format, medium format, rangefinders, and my trusty Leica. :]

Equipment can make the shot work, equipment can make you stop thinking, it’s all about the subject at hand and the strategy to make the shot happen.

TBAN: What is your opinion on the way photography has changed with the arrival of digital photography?
BB: Digital photography killed an art form, analog photography, which is my medium of choice. It killed it in the sense that the majority of people gave up their film cameras, for the convenience of digital. Most sacrificed the magnificent quality for the dry sterile look of digital.

TBAN: Do you prefer digital photography or traditional photography?
BB: Analog heart all the way.

TBAN: Is there anything in particular you like to photograph? Nature? Objects? People? Bands?
I guess I am a portrait photographer, but not limited to. I like to treat my portraits like I would treat a still life, so humans as still life is a more accurate description.

TBAN: What life experiences have influenced your photography?
BB: Life is photography, vice versa. I am still growing up, and everything I shoot is evidence of that.

TBAN: What are your current and future plans? Do you have any projects you are currently working on?
BB: I am working on a series called ‘taste of summer’ and I plan on taking my art far and wide. I plan on staying an artist and veering away from the commercial aspects of this field.

TBAN: What type of things motivate you and inspire you to continue in your work?
Shelbie. :] That’s it really.

TBAN: What obstacles/issues can you run into when shooting?
BB: Finding willing people, and the psychotic california weather.

TBAN: Do you have a website, blog, or facebook fan page you would like to mention?
BB: flickr.com/bradbrok/ or bradbrok.com

TBAN: Do you have a favorite photographer? Have any photographers influenced your work?
BB: There are a few, Ryan Mcginely, Noah Kalina, and Noah Wilson to name a few, but their work varies vastly from mine. Just like them I found something I can really call my own.

TBAN: What advice would you give to someone who is becoming interested in photography? What helpful tips could you give to a beginner?
BB: Zone system.

TBAN: Choose one picture that you feel is one of your absolute favorites. Describe it and how it was shot.

BB: Remember that day it snowed all over california bay area? Well I went out with my cheap Polaroid land camera with 3000 speed film and found the perfect vista to shoot a would-be mystic landscape. This shot took way too much time to nail 100%.