Born in New York City, Powell River photographer Robert Colasanto and his wife, Jessica, decided on their honeymoon that they wanted to move to the Sunshine Coast. The couple arrived in 1999, first in Sechelt and then Powell River. Colasanto has photographed performing arts and nature, including wildlife conservation organizations, and worked with local artists on prints for their works.
How do you work?
I don’t stage anything. I don’t talk to people. I don’t set things up. I just kind of lurk in the shadows and do my thing. My thing is really low light in the moment, whether it be nature or people, and I’ve had a lot of exposure to music. I have the camera in my hand almost daily, sometimes for hours at a time. I’m out in the woods and just all over the place. I work every day. I’m really in tune with my camera.
What influences your work?
I look at things so they will enhance a story or help tell a story. I don’t know specifically what’s influenced me the most, but people have told me my images are different. I capture things differently and whether it’s through a series or one image, they seem to help tell a story, evoke an emotion or take people someplace.
What is it that makes your images different?
What really helped me, and this may sound a little bit odd, but in my late 20s I had some depression that came and went over a two-year period. Somehow, I don’t know why, it made me see things slightly different. If anything, that has helped me. When I was healthy again I’d go out and take pictures of ordinary things and turn them into something interesting to look at.
As a photographer, do you have favourite subjects?
I would still say I’m a fine-arts photographer. I do the performing arts. I do a lot of nature work. For the last 10 years, I’ve been doing art reproduction and that’s really my mainstay for income: photographing paintings, setting them up for colour balancing and then making prints for local artists.
For more information, go to robertcolasanto.com.
