...And my ancestor was a hessian mercenary. Yeah, a Hessian. Like the headless horseman. At least that's what my family told me. Apparently, he fought in the War for Independence. On the losing side. But hey, no one’s perfect. Generations later, I was born in Colorado. But I was raised in Paraguay. During my formative years I was exposed to extremes of wealth vs. poverty, and urban density vs. isolated wilderness. When we returned to the States, I found that my multiculturalism had made me a bit different from everyone else; a tad “weird”, if you will. That is, until I moved to San Francisco in 2006. I felt like I had finally come home (because everyone here is “a tad weird”).
I grow facial hair quickly. It's probably genetic or something. I also change it up a lot. Use these photos to help you pick me out of a crowd.
My sketchy start in photography.
A long time ago, my best friend had this drum machine. It was stolen. By his brother, no less. The brother traded it in for an old film camera and a Playstation. What he really wanted was the game console, but he was also a born haggler, thus the camera. Since he had no need for it, he gave the camera to me (at the time I had no idea of how he came by it). My friend, on the other hand, got nothing. Needless to say, he wasn’t pleased. However, once he saw me passionately snapping away on my new (old) camera, he decided that perhaps it had been a good trade after all.
Buck-wild with a video camera.
I’m a musician. Yes, yes, I know this is supposed to be about how I got interested in video. But you see, back when I was writing and recording electronica/rock music with my two-man band, I decided that if we were going to make music, we also needed music videos. So we bought a video camera and went buck-wild. That's when I learned what real work is.
Falling face-first into design.
It all started with a soul-draining job in cubicle-farm hell. I worked the graveyard shift, taking tech-support calls in Spanish. Not a whole lot going on, as you can guess. So I passed the time drawing cute monsters on alien worlds. Weird stuff. At first I colored everything with neon markers and colored pencils. Then I wanted to try my hand at doing it digitally. So I learned Photoshop. Next thing I knew, people were like “Oh, you know the Photoshop? You must be a designer. Make me a poster.” Sure, why not…
Enough history. What about today?
I would call myself a modern-day renaissance man, if it didn’t sound so stupid. So instead, I’ll just go with creative consultant. I used to wear many hats: photographer; film-maker; graphic designer. But the thing is, medium is much less important than message. I love working with great organizations and fantastic people, regardless of the medium; and I’m happiest when something we’ve built creates a powerful connection on an emotional level.