“A photograph is really important in the way that people respond to it. You, as the photographer, are responsible for how a person is portrayed.”
Patrick Fulgencio is a third-year King’s Journalism student, athlete and Photo Manager with the Dalhousie Gazette. Although his favourite style is street photography, he shoots all types of events for the newspaper.
It’s the multifaceted aspect of the medium that attracts him — that a photo is much more dynamic than a single moment in time. If taken right, it can convey emotions and significance that even a thousand words can have trouble conveying.
“I’m a jack of all trades; I have many interests, and I find that photography lets me access all these facets of life,” he says.
“If I want to be at a hockey game, I can shoot a hockey game, if I want to go to the Halifax Pop explosion, I can listen to some music while creating these photographs.
“[Street photography] allows me to just take a step outside of myself and let the world go by as I just take all these photographs of all these small things in life that no one takes the time to notice.”
Fulgencio only started taking photographs in university, starting out with photojournalism and eventually shooting for Newzulu, an online site that allows photographers to sell their work to media outlets via photographing specific local events.
He describes a defining moment of his career when he won a sports photography contest that got him sent to Estonia and set up with a mentor.
He also thinks that anyone can be a photographer in this day and age, especially with the rise of social media.
“I view Instagram as this really great platform for people to express themselves … I was just in class today and I saw 5 people just scrolling through Instagram … these people just digest so many pictures in their day. I think that’s the great thing about Instagram, that you can get your work out there really fast.
“For some people it’s about the likes, for others, it’s about getting their work out there and I think it’s great because without this platform to express yourself where would we put these pictures?
“If you’re a budding photographer, you can put your work out there … it’s like a business card, in a sense; people can see your work before they even talk to you.”
It’s not a question of fancy equipment either — Fulgencio started with a five-year-old camera, shooting in dark situations.
“I find that’s what gave rise to my skills as a photographer now. I made the best with what I had and now that I have even better equipment I can pull even more out of that.”
Not that he’s let becoming a professional go to his head. “I still think of myself as a guy who likes to take pictures, but now there’s all these dimensions to me; [things] that happened while I was taking pictures.”
At the start of this all I didn’t think “Oh, I I’m going to be a photographer.” But now I can call myself a photographer.
You have to just shoot the photos, and things will just happen, as long as you’re invested in what you’re doing … go out there and make things happen for yourself.”
See our Contribute page for how you can become a volunteer photographer with the Gazette.
Recent Comments