TITLE: Box Walking

AUTHOR: Mark Zilberman (United States)

My photography journey has bookended my life. My first experience was when I was 6 years old. My mother was taking my brother and I to Washington DC to see the Japanese Cherry Trees in bloom. We walked by a drugstore window where I saw a bright shiny yellow box and said I wanted it. It was a Kodak Instamatic 104 with cartridge film and flash cubes. There I began and continued uninterrupted till my early thirties. During this period, I made my living as a freelance photographer in NYC. At this point I learned mostly on my own. But also, while pursuing a degree at Arizona State University. Additionally, several years’ work as a photographer’s assistant in NYC where I had the opportunity to work for many amazing photographers.

As a freelance in New York City, I photographed for magazines (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Eastern Airlines etc.), and graphic designers (working on annual reports). As time went on my interest went more towards photojournalism. I went on several trips to Gaza, the West Bank (photographing settlements there), Panama (during the reign of Manuel Noriega), Nicaragua (during the time of the Sandinista Contra conflicts). I made a decision to leave photography at that point and return to college to get a Master’s degree in Social Work. I have worked in that field continuously since then. Though, it’s difficult to say how much, my work as a social worker for over 20 years certainly informs my photography.

After about a 20-year hiatus from photographing, I slowly returned to taking pictures. There was a learning curve in becoming proficient in digital photography. I love digital photography. Analog photography is not romantic to me. I enjoy the immediacy and easily accessible control of digital. Along the way I started to look again at my work from the past. It was interesting to see that the pictures that I most liked at this point my life were the images that were most like pictures that are done for photojournalism and street photography. And this is the direction that I’ve been going ever since. I also shoot weddings. But I don’t do this in the traditional sense. My weddings are in a documentary wedding photographic genre. And I enjoy them thoroughly because I pursue them as a street photographer. The amount of emotion that is going on at a wedding is abundant. And this is what I seek to catch on these assignments as well as on the street. Strong emotion.