Introduction

 Daniel Guiller

Professor Woo

LTED-380

6 September 2022

            Introduction  

Hello all, welcome to my blog. My name is Daniel Guiller, and I am a photo major at NJCU. This is currently my last year at the college and I anticipate graduating this upcoming May. I chose photography as my major because I have a deep interest in photography and storytelling through visual images. Photography can be both technical and compelling, and I am drawn to many different sides of the photographic spectrum. Analog photography, darkroom, and alternative photo processes are sides of the photo process that I am drawn to. The other side is the mechanical and technical aspects of shooting and fixing old film cameras. I also have an interest in video production and digital editing of images. 

I suppose I first became literate when I was a child, probably when I first learned to read. Growing up my parents would always read to me, and it was around the age of four when I read my first sentence. I used to read a lot of novels when I was younger, but as I grew older I did not read as much. I became more of a visual person when I was around fifteen or sixteen. It was around that time that I got my first real camera, a Minolta XD-11 SLR. I enjoy that camera and still shoot with it. 

Though my interest in photography steered away a bit as I was finishing high school. I focused more on illustration and 2-dimensional design. I went to NJCU in 2019 aiming to focus on illustration, but after a couple of semesters and photo classes, I switched majors to photography. I went into my Photo I class not knowing anything about film photography. All I had was interest, and when I started learning the bare basics, such as the exposure triangle I would say that was the first time I started getting literate in my field. Within the next two-three years of photo classes and a collection of my personal experiences behind a camera that is where I began to get literate and learn all the sciences and technicalities of photography. Within the past year, I learned how to repair digital and film cameras. Through a lot of tinkering and reading repair manuals, I learned about disassembling and cleaning camera internals. 

I enjoy photo books greatly, and videos about gear/repair. Other than the media I enjoy, the activities I like to do is photographing, going on photo trips/discovering, and working on new art/photo projects. I have a few role models, some are artists whose work I like, for example, Graciela Iturbide and Tina Modotti. I’ve had a few shares of mentors who have supported me, and my father is also an artist who gives me advice and ideas. I feel like I have a lot more to learn in many areas, and can continue to gain literacy in what I’m studying. I am the type of person who carries a film camera everywhere I go. I have the mentality of “you miss 100% of the pictures you don’t take” and I use that as justification for carrying a camera everywhere I go. It is my belief that having a camera on you at all times forces you to take pictures more frequently and photograph things you see every day and often miss. This motivates me because then I can try different lenses or different cameras to further inspire or motivate me to shoot.