Brian Dokko Online

Ever since I started using my dad's old manual focus Canon AE-1 as a child, I've loved photography.  I have a pretty terrible memory, so pictures help me capture (albeit in a very shallow sense) moments of my life.  I have pictures of me when I was in better shape (since it's been far too long to remember what that looked like), and I still like looking at pictures of my wedding.  It's modern Impressionism, capturing one still moment, whatever it may be, and inviting the viewer to share that particular instant with the subject(s).

I've taken courses in photography, read books on it, and worked with people in the industry, but I'm convinced you don't need any of that to take great pictures.  It helps, but some of my favorite pictures happened by accident.  I'm not trying to win a Pulitzer, and my work will probably never grace the cover of Time magazine.  A great photo doesn't have to mean something to everyone, so long as it means something to someone.

This is a picture of my nephew, Jeremy, taken while on a family vacation to Maui.  You wouldn't know it without me telling you, but Jeremy has autism; sometimes it's a challenge to get him to make eye contact, or to smile for a picture, or to say more than a few words. I love this picture because he's just Jeremy here.  No special needs labels, no therapist instructing him "how" to play--he's just a five-year old boy playing at the beach.

It's not a posed picture, and in just about every picture where Jeremy is posing for the camera, his smile is never as natural as it is in pictures like this one. I love this moment for that, and all I did was happen to have a camera with me when it happened.

I'm working on posting my portfolio here, so check back later...

Portfolio