After working for over 34 years as a TV news videographer in Los Angeles, the second largest news market in the country, I can now devote most of my time to pursuing my lifelong love of photography.
I was first introduced to photography when I was just a young boy. My father used to shoot portraits and let me borrow his camera.
I loved taking photos!
It was years later, when I was in college, that I began to make art.
While at Atlantic Union College, a small school in Massachusetts, I started shooting with a 35mm camera, shooting mostly black and white film. I wanted my pictures to be perfect. I would spend hours in the darkroom, developing and printing my work.
Before long, my photography professor promoted me to lab assistant.
My work improved quickly, and while in college, I had the opportunity to work with legendary New England photographer, Ron Rosenstock.
It was an amazing experience and one that sent me on my professional path.
I began working in television news in Los Angeles in 1980, a time when TV stations were transitioning from film cameras to video cameras.
For the next three decades, I covered nearly every major news story, including multiple high-profile trials, riots, storms, fires and politics.
As I chased down these stories, I worked hard to always put into practice the basic principles of photography that I had learned long ago.
While working as a news videographer, I earned a number of awards, including a prestigious Peabody Award in 2005 for an investigative story dealing with dangerous methane gas in the Playa Vista development of Los Angeles.
Throughout my over 34 years of telling human interest stories with video, I have never been without a still camera, constantly working to perfect my art.
Over the years, the cameras have changed, but my love of photography has stayed the same.
I hope you enjoy my photographs. Come back and visit often, as I will continue to add to my collection...
Sincerely,
Hernán Vázquez