ZACH VENICE Photographer, Los Angeles

About Zach Venice

I was born in El Paso, Texas in March 1980. Since I was a small boy, I loved still images. Moments frozen in time, so that you could go back and examine every detail. I was fairly skilled at drawing and my family always encouraged me to develop my talents. As I grew, drawing took the back-burner to girls, computers, and my other studies. I also became interested in film, music, and sports.

I left home in 1998 to study film in New York at the Rochester Institute of Technology. It was a big change from Texas and film was tedious, slow, and expensive. I gravitated to learning more about computers and decided to head back down South to be closer to home and my girlfriend at the time. I lived for 3 years in Tucson, Arizona studying at U of A. There were some inspiring professors and interesting classes, but on the whole, I didn't take school seriously enough to stay focused.

One thing that I did take from U of A actually did not come from the classroom. There was a large exhibit of Garry Winogrand's work on display at the Center for Creative Photography. His images threw me a curveball and taught me that photography was a lot more than just pretty pictures. His photos were raw, real, thoughtful, and exciting. I decided to drop $700 on a decent digital camera: a bold move for a hungry college student who had never owned anything besides disposables. Within a year, I was dropping an additional couple grand on better equipment. This photography thing wasn't exactly cheap and so I needed to find a way to fund this obsession.

I decided to write a few of my favorite photographers and propose some business ideas that I had. To my surprise, one responded and invited me out to Los Angeles to meet me in person. In short, I was offered a job and a nice place to stay near the beach. I wasn't quite finished with my studies in Tucson, but I decided to throw caution to the wind and take my chances in LA. Eight years later, I'm still here breathing Cali air as I write this. I have learned so much from those around me and by photographing every chance I got.

For better or worse, my photography is a reflection of me. It often contains self-humor, cynicism, sexuality, hope, and hopelessness. I try to capture moments in as raw a fashion as possible and with just as much detail. If you enjoy my work, send some more eyes my way or better yet, let me take your photo. Thanks for looking!

z.