Miguel Farias
(b. 1969)
I received my first camera when I was eight. I took a Polaroid Land camera on a field trip to Point Reyes and fell in love with both nature and photography on that trip. That was the third grade. I loved cinema growing up. My neighbor worked in the movie industry and would teach about filmmaking and photography. When I was eleven, I took a filmmaking class over the summer. I made about seven Super8 claymation short films that summer and two were shown at the Mill Valley Film Festival in the fall.
When I was a boy scout, one of my scoutmasters furthered my education in photography, so by the time I got into high school I began to learn how to use the darkroom and I decided I wanted to pursue photography as a career. I worked in as many different areas as I could to learn as much as I could (from a camera store to photo labs to assisting), before I went back to school and earned my degree at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1997. There I studied with Jack Fulton, Linda Connor, Reagan Louie, Pirkle Jones and Hank Wessel. My experience at SFAI changed my life. I loved my time there. It was the first time I felt like I had what it took to make it as an artist.
Growing up I was mostly influenced by pop culture. Cartoons, anime, science fiction and punk rock. My exposure to photography was limited. It wasn't until after high school that I became more familiar with contemporary artists and photographers. My work revolves around my identity and the spaces we occupy. The language we use to identify aesthetic, perspective and value. How this language morphs as it crosses borders and oceans. The reinterpretation of the values and aesthetics as identities overlap.
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