Rachael (Rio) Rothstein
I am so pleased to share my collection of children and family photographs with you. I have been creating photos ever since my Grandma Bev gave me my first 110 mm film camera when I was five years old in Oregon where I was born and raised. Other five year old friends from my neighborhood playing dress-up and freezing in dramatic poses were my focal point. Not much has changed.
I moved to San Francisco to study photography at the Academy of Art University, and graduated from there with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in photography. During and after college I worked for several amazing families as a nanny. The title didn't only fit my school schedule, but it was perfect extracaricular practice for portrait taking of very busy and fast moving targets. I began applying everything I was learning in class to the photos I was taking at work and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the final product.
Choosing a format, building mental imagery, determining the execution of each precious frame, finding a favorite f-stop, taking time to manually focus, breathing out and clicking the shutter with a steady hand are each crucial steps in creating the image I want to capture. I am drawn to real life people at comfort in their raw elements, yet also that ever so awkward moment right before I count to three and say "cheese".