New Mexico Photographer

An interview with Nicholas Trofimuk, a New Mexico landscape photographer.

New Mexico Photographer: How did you get started in photography?

Nicholas Trofimuk:
As a child I always had a love for art and was attracted to images. My original intent was to be a commercial artist, but I was sidetracked by the necessity of earning a living. My love of art was put on the back burner.

While vacationing in Williamsburg, VA, I saw a photographic show of black and white photographs of all of the capitol buildings of the United States. I was fascinated with how they looked and knew I had to do something like this; and here I am, twenty-five years later, never going anyplace without my camera!

---

NMP: Does your livelihood come exclusively from your photography? Do you have any advice for photographers who are starting out?

NT:
My living does come exclusively from my photography. I have had the good fortune of having my work shown in “Photogenesis,” a gallery of photography in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe is an extremely active art market and my work has been viewed and purchased by thousands of people and I am thrilled to know that my work hangs on walls around the world.

My advice for a new photographer is quite simple. He or she must find their own path. No two people photograph the same and each person must arrive at success in the photographic world in their own way. You must have a passion and love for your subject matter by photographing what appeals to you the most and by developing a unique style of your own. Lastly, patience. It takes time. It cannot be done overnight or in a year. It takes time. The two words are passion and patience.

---

NMP: Why do you prefer black and white photography rather than color photography?

NT:
Black and white photography allows me to have complete control over my work. It allows me to enhance a scene which may appear simple or ordinary. It allows me to strip away all distractions and to lay before the viewer pure emotion and beauty. It allows the viewer to feel what I felt when taking the photograph.

---

NMP: Who or what are your inspirations and/or influences?

NT:
We are influenced by everything that we see, the people we know, the books we read, the shows we watch, everything that goes to make up our lives.

I made a conscious decision when I first started photographing to capture only things that were beautiful. The world has become my cathedral and I do what I can to honor it. For inspiration, I need look no further than the world God created. Of course I have the inestimable advantage of living in Galisteo, New Mexico, which surely received more than its fair share of that beauty.

---

NMP: What techniques do you use to capture the beauty of the landscape?

NT:
One thing that has always intrigued me in the world of photography is that most photographers are so wrapped up in technique, equipment and F-stops. My techniques are very simple and basic, allowing me to photograph intuitively.

I react to the scene quickly, allowing my subconscious to bring to focus the essence of what I perceived. Conditions change rapidly in a landscape (too rapidly sometimes), so to “capture the moment” one has to act quickly and intuitively, always keeping things simple.

---

NMP: Why do you like New Mexico landscapes? How do they compare to other areas?

NT:
There is no greater feeling than to be standing in the midst of a mounting storm or changing weather conditions with one’s camera on a tripod, watching nature unfold and attempting to capture these feelings on that one sheet of film.

In New Mexico the changing weather conditions make this quite a challenge. “New Mexico is a land of contrasts, of shadow and light, of stark beauty and harsh reality. Nowhere are the convolutions which form the earth more evident nor is the impact made by man so slight. She has been called ‘The Land of Enchantment’ by her admirers. And the oblique light, which touches her arroyos and her mountaintops, lends credence to the name.”

I have rarely seen a landscape I did not like, but New Mexico is unique. Because of the changing atmospheric conditions, perhaps they should be called “skyscapes” rather than “landscapes”. The changing skies are what make New Mexico unique.

---

NMP: How do you feel the direction of landscape photography is going? Do you feel that the market is expanding or shrinking?

NT:
I think some of the photographers who insist on photographing garbage strewn along the highways or environmental messages do an injustice to the term “landscape.” I can tell you from experience that the market for photography is definitely expanding when the subject matter is something that a person wants to put on their wall and look at every morning and every evening.

To quote the famous impressionist painter, Pierre Auguste Renoir, “There are enough ugly things in life for us not to add to them.” I’m not saying that people should not photograph these things and show them as a social commentary, but they certainly shouldn’t expect people to buy them.

Original Article