ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Looking out over the rocky tide pools at Laguna Beach California, 6-year-old Richard Salas would spend the entire day gazing in at the creatures living there. All the other kids were playing in the waves while Richard pretended he was small enough to swim in these beautiful underwater worlds.
A caring high school teacher, Mr. Barrett, confronted Richard about not making good use of his time and talents, and offered him a chance to be in his photography class. Richard began to work hard there, and discovered his lifelong passion.
He learned from the work of Ansel Adams, Irving Penn, and Josef Karsh. “Ansel was the master of pre-visualization, mentally creating a photograph before taking it. Irving Penn’s use of light and design was mind expanding, and Josef’s portraits told a whole story in just one photograph. I can still see the power and majesty of his Winston Churchhill emblazoned in my mind.
Richard decided to make photography his life’s work, and study at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara California. While waiting for the first classes to start, he enrolled in a SCUBA diving course to meet people in his new town. It was the summer of “Jaws”. Everyone was running away from the ocean. Richard decided to dive in, putting off school for the next 6 months and getting a full time job to pay for his dive gear. His childhood wish to be small enough to swim with his tide pool friends was finally realized.
He started Brooks with the Underwater I class, then scored highest marks in the Underwater II class. He applied for the “Our World Underwater” scholarship and placed second in the country. Through that scholarship he got to have a two-month stay with Ernest Brooks (then president of Brooks Institute of Photography) on the School’s boat, “Just Love”. Lucky for Richard, a student crewmember was graduating. Mr. Brooks asked Richard to be on the crew, and he said yes before Ernie could finish the question. For the next year and a half on the “Just Love” Richard, Ernie Brooks, and students of Brooks Institute explored the underwater world of the Channel Islands.
After graduating, Richard moved to Los Angeles and began assisting photographers there. He learned about long hours and service, and got to work on Marlboro shoots, and assist Annie Liebowitz. He started his own business, and a family. When his oldest son was graduating from college, his wife suggested they mark this event by diving together—something Richard hadn’t done for twenty years.
This renewed his relationships with the islands, and the animals that live there in the surrounding waters. He started going out on local dive boats as often as he could get away, taking his 25 plus years of studio experience underwater, and making a photographic record of what he saw.
The result is his love letter to the sea: “Sea of Light”
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