From Kabul to Ohio, a Photographer’s journey

I wiped the sweat from my eyes as I looked over the land beneath me. A long drive up the switchback path way that zigged and zagged like saw teeth up the side hill led us to the top. In all directions from my perch, brown dirt and dust thirsty for any hint of water spread out in all directions. Hints of green dotted the landscape, dusty looking trees standing out from the stark brown filter that seemed to lay across everything. Little buildings spread out form the base of TV Hill, lying between it’s sister hill, Radio Hill, that overshadowed the city of Kabul, Afghanistan. It was no oasis, but it was still beautiful in my eyes. It was here I began to take my first steps into photography.

I was twenty years old and serving in the US Army in 2006-2007. I’d been tasked with driving VIP’s visiting our base to the top of this scenic vista. For whatever reason, this just was the thing to do even if I never understood why. I just knew when volunteers were sought out, I was always first to throw my name out there to go. I’m sure many of the other’s never understood. I’m quite certain I didn’t recognize why either but I’d already been bitten by the bug. I was a photographer and coming into my own without realizing it.

It was on these drives through out the country that I found myself. Others saw me as being a distracted individual in the office. In the field, I had the ability to pay attention to all of the details others missed out on. As we were always scanning for danger, I took in the sights as well. Groups of people living their every day lives was fascinating to me. It was so vastly different than my upbringing half a world away. Remnants of when the Russians had invaded the country decades before still persisted after all that time in the form of tank graveyards or old Russian officer barracks that somehow still stood. The snow that could turn this brown world suddenly stark white in winter. The view of the snow capped mountains hundreds of miles away that seemed much closer than they actually were due to their gargantuan size.

I was equipped with a Sony Cybershot DSC-P100 compact point and shoot camera. It was a whopping 5.1 MP camera I bought for this deployment. I’d shot simple little disposable cameras up to this point but for an adventure like this I knew I needed something else. It nestled securely on my bullet proof vest in one of many pouches for the majority of my tour.

Despite not really knowing a thing about photography, I still look back to those formative years. I may not have been able to tell you what depth of field or an aperture were, but I had what many refer to as “the eye”. I could recognize interesting shots and compose them to some degree of success. I still look back at these photos and am proud of capturing them to remember nearly 20 years later.

I came home and picked up my first DSLR, a Nikon D40. I attended college for pharmaceutical sciences, but I dabbled in what art and landscape photography courses I could attend with my electives. I pursued photography as a hobbyist. I primarily focused on landscapes, wild life and street photography for nearly 14 years before I was bitten by my next transition point.

2020 hit hard with Covid. Social distancing and working from home had led to a lot of time in quarantine and I was desperate for interacting with others. I had let cell phones take over my camera duties for several years as they surpassed the capability of my old camera. I ended up going out and picking up a Nikon D5600 and upgrading later to a Nikon Z6 II. I began shooting TFP (Trade for Print) with families in trade for copies of the images to practice my portrait skills. Friends and family in the beginning, but as my skills grew I moved to asking for models in the community to work with.

That’s when I discovered I’d discovered my niche. Portraits brought something that a landscape never did. It brought me a dynamic subject who became part of the work. Each model brought their own personality and flair to each image. My canvas was dynamic, changing with each person I shot and even within a shoot as the range of human emotion could be captured behind the lens. This was my siren’s call and where I enjoyed landscapes, portraiture had rooted far deeper inside of me. Three years later, I recognize this as my calling and still continue to strive to push myself. Who knew that my path that had started 7,000 miles away would bring me all the way back here. Hopefully those reading this can take part in my journey and let me show them what I see.