Stella DeSha Thomas Gallery Photographs by Shannon Persaud

Shannon Persaud
Artist's Statement

1. What first got you started in photography?

When I was around 8 years old, I remember an odd looking little black box sitting in the hall closet. It was dusty and obviously hadn’t been touched in a long time. I picked it up and asked my dad what it was. He opened it up and showed me that it was an old camera. It was in fact, a Lubitel 2 (Russian, medium format camera, built in 1965). He started describing how it worked, and began describing the complexities of its interiors, but the only thing I heard was “camera” and I started thinking of all the things I would like to capture on film. One week later my mom and dad bought a cheap point-and-shoot and one roll of film for me to use.


2. What kinds of pictures do you like to take. Subjects or scenes etc.

Right now, I’m attracted to architectural-type subjects. That said, I don’t limit myself to shoot only buildings, I like to take pictures of anything I see that has architectural elements.


3. Do you use any special equipment, film, developing processes?

I love shooting with black and white film (so far my favourite is TMAX 400). I use a Canon Rebel G. Its flexibility is great; it offers a fully-automatic mode, complete manual control or even somewhere inbetween automatic and manual.

I like to develop my own B&W photos, but I have yet to master ‘quality control’. I have experimented with different types of paper and a couple of types of film. The variables in photography are endless and I plan to do a lot more experimenting in the future.


4. Where would you like to go with it? Goals, dreams, plans?

20 years later, I have inherited that Lubitel 2, but alas I haven’t learned how to use it properly. One of my goals is to master the Lubitel; and the other is to create a series of photos on a common theme that may eventually be published. I have a few ideas that I’m working on...now I just need to find the time to make my goals a reality.


About the Artist
     Once Shannon discovered the endless possibilities in photography, she was hooked. “This is something I could never get bored of,” she claims. “The world of photography has allowed me to be creative in a number of ways; not only in composition, but with the developing techniques and more recently, being able to manipulate photos with software programs such as Adobe Photoshop.”
     Shannon is looking forward to discovering what potential lies in her Lubitel 2 - a Russian medium format camera, built in 1965.
     Some of Shannon’s others passions include: dance, travel and Hungarian pastries.


To contact Shannon Persaud, please cut & paste this address into an email: shannon.persaud@utoronto.ca


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