TITLE: Venice Walk Street Portraits

Venice Walk Street Portraits:
My photographs are environmental portraits. They are about the friends and acquaintances that live on a Venice CA walk street, the photos were taken in front and inside their homes the location reflects the person/s in the photograph and their personality. Many of my photos were taken where the subject/s live, work or play. The environs tell us something about the subject and the subject tells us something about the environs. Separately they would be lesser images. When taking these photos, I form a relationship with the subject. Some of the subjects are long-term relationships and others are momentary. I always made a connection. The relationship I form is evident in the photograph. It is a part of the personality of the image. I am an unseen part of the content, influencing it from beyond. My interaction is integral.

AUTHOR: Nelson Willis (United States)

I first started taking photographs at a young age. My father was an amateur photographer. He traveled the world during the 50s and 60s documenting everything with his Contax rangefinder. He gave me a Voghtlander camera and I started photographing everything.
In High School, I became serious about photography. I saved enough money from my summer job to purchase my first Nikon. In high school, I learned all the darkroom skills that would give me control over my images. I took art history/appreciation classes in high school that gave me an aesthetic grounding. For college, I attended UCLA where I was accepted into The Motion Picture and Television Department. Being a naïve youth, I thought the movies were similar to photography. I was soon informed otherwise.
At UCLA in addition to my other classes, I continue my studies in photography, studying with Robert Heinecken, Todd Walker and Robert Cumming. After university, I pursued a career as a Production Designer in motion pictures and television. In this career, I used the esthetics and skills that I had developed as a photographer.
After my career in motion pictures, I was able to return to my love of creating images with a camera.