Jose Saldana

My philosophy is taking photos of places that you've never seen before. I would just walk out to places and there's all those different things to take pictures of that could've been easily missed if you stayed home. You have to step out of your house to really see what's out there. When you're out there in the great wide open area, and you're all by yourself, you will notice things that are ever-so changing before your eyes lest it be the weather, mountain, far-away creatures climbing up high on the mountain...It's astonishing feeling to be able to capture all of that. It's astonishing feeling to be able to capture all of that. The goals keep doing that. So that's my philosophy.

My area of work, I take photos of people such as: explorers, climbers, backpackers, runners, all of that. I take pictures of people who've been through crisis. They've had bad things happening to them. I take pictures to show their lifestyles. You know what mine is? Deafness. I can't hear what's going on around me, nothing. There was this one time when a boulder went right by me on the St. Helen Mountain. I didn't see that coming so it was a really close call. I was by myself. If there was someone else with me, they would've tapped my shoulder and I would move out of the way. But no, I was by myself and a boulder near missed me. From a hearing person's point of view, they would think I had to use my eyes three times as much. It's like being a cat with four, five, or six eyes. A hearing person would hear it and avoid danger and for me, I would have to be sharp with my eyes. Especially during nighttime! So really, Deaf people have sharp eyes, you know? It's really exciting for me!