Jamie Persico
My love of photography started long before I ever took photographs. Growing up as a family we always looked forward to going on the great family road trip. Normally our road trips like those shared by many Americans involved heading west in a car for a couple of weeks of camping. This was my favorite time of the year. During these trips I grew to love the beautiful landscapes of the American west. I always drew from those experiences in my art classes growing up.
After high school I decided to take my generals at Vermilion Community College in Ely MN since at that time I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for a living. There was no better place to go for my first 2 years of college. The limitless forest and lakes of the Ely area were like being out in the great wildernesses of the west just without the hills.
I was first introduced to photography as an art form by my now wife, then girlfriend Anne Marie. She was lucky enough to have photography classes in her high school. I started taking a few pictures with her camera and I was hooked. I went out and bought my first camera, a Canon Rebel 35mm camera with basic 28-80mm lens. During my first 2 years at Vermilion I excelled in my art classes. I took every one available and still wanted more. That is when I knew I should pursue an art degree. After a little back and forth I ended up deciding to stay up north and go to the University of MN-Duluth. I majored in fine art and minored in photography. The Duluth area was an awesome area to practice and hone my photography.
I quickly discovered that in the fine art world of photography landscapes are SO 1945! Since the heydays of Ansel Adams and his contemporaries landscape photography has seemed to have fallen by the wayside to more edgy photography. My photography professors were very critical on all of the images we produced but especially on the landscape photography. “It has been done so often, so you better do it very well, or it will pale in comparison to what is out there” is what they would say. It is hard to find your own voice in landscape photography without people saying you are just trying to be like so and so. I am so thankful that my instructors pushed me the way they did. It forced me to do my very best to create great images. As a result I had great success at UMD. I was awarded several scholarships for my photographic work and I made it into the Photographers Forum Magazine “best of college photography” issue in 2004.
After college I took a position at Digigraphics Photos Inc. in Minneapolis. Digigraphics is a large format digital and photographic printing company. I feel lucky that I am working in an industry closely related to that of my education. However as most artist find, it is tough to continue to produce your own art and still pay the bills. Over the past few years I have expanded out in search of ways to use my photography skills in new ways. Recently I have been spending time learning the world of wedding photography. I want to thank Scott and Laura Haraldson for taking me under their wings and teaching me wedding photography. They are great at what they do.
To me photography has been about going places and seeing new things. I like to try and capture the unique beauty and wonder of a landscape like it is being seen for the first time. I hope my photographs impact you in the way that these landscapes have impacted me.
