Today we’d like to introduce you to Renier Otto Rios
Hi Renier, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am Venezuelan I immigrated to the United States in 2016 I lived in the capital city of Caracas and I developed a career in photojournalism. I started to work for newspapers when I was 29 when officially started to work in media but I learned photography in 1998 so I was prepared but I’ve never got the chance and I was always looking for jobs in order to make ends meet forgetting sometimes that I have a craft for me that can give me a career path so I worked in media for 4 years 3 of them staffed in a newspaper and the other year i got hired by different newspaper as freelance photograper. The learning curve in Venezuela for a photographer who is initiating in photojournalism is fast paced and in one year you are seasoned enough to know what’s going on around you and how to cover the news well in all senses of the word Well word can tell.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The obstacles that a guy like me face is the fact that there are not a lot media in general in Memphis or other publications around and it makes it challenging to work around and to live from this craft. It is definitely a challenge and sometimes you have to assign assignments to yourself to keep you practicing all the time and looking for stories around that you can do at the same time you have 9 to 5 job to pay your bills and to balance those things can be difficult sometimes. Another challenge is get calls from media here because you are a complete unknown and makes it even harder. The other thing can be language barriers but overall the anonymity is what it ended up hurting me in the long run.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work before coming to the United States I was mostly covering news of different kinds and I had a personal work in development but it has to stop because I immigrated. So right now what I’m trying to do in an old fashion way is to photographs what is new to me in this culture so I have been posting on my Instagram account some pictures but they are not related to each other it is more for people to see what I do instead of showing a coherent piece of work right now. But most definitely my work and the way I shot is influenced by those years in photojournalism and in street photography. That last genre Street photography is related to that personal body of work that is stopped because I immigrate.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Industry wise I think Memphis needs more publication in order for photographers to live out of their craft. I get to see other photographers around staffed by a media platform which is very difficult because news wise we have two major newspapers and the other one is to collaborate with NYT, and many others which is not easy and I think here we are struggling with publications. Now if you want to forget about that you can successfully work as a weeding photographer and eventually live out of your craft and be your own boss and lastly you can become in a photographer that sales images and every other time you can develop a project that can be shown in galleries but that path is more difficult of all of that I have mention above but not impossible. So even if you are offering your service or selling projects around Memphis is a place where everything needs to get developed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://renierottophotography.wordpress.com/
- Instagram: renierottophoto901
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renierotto?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Other: https://Renierottophoto.tumblr.com
Image Credits
Renier Otto Rios
