Photography Culture

American Dream: Rydell Tomas Jr’s Photographs Strangers on Film

Chris Gampat
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05/16/2018
3 Mins read
20171215-Rydell565

Last Updated on 05/16/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

Rydell Tomas Jr originally wanted to be a filmmaker

Hi, my name is Rydell Tomas Jr and I’m an upcoming freelance photographer from the Southside of Atlanta, Ga. I’ve been making photos for two years and I’ve been putting together conceptual projects since July of 2017. I started photographing through my love of filmmaking, and after realizing I truly enjoyed making photos, I dropped filmmaking altogether. I love people, so the majority of my work focuses on strangers, friends and family. I currently shoot with a 1957 Leica M3 w/ 50mm Serenar and 1986 Yashica Fx-3 Super 2000 w/ 50mm Yashinon. 35mm film is my favorite and i try to use as many film stocks as possible. My favorites are Kodak Gold 200 and Kodak Tri-X 400.

  • Why did you get into photography? I initially wanted to be a filmmaker, but fell in love with photography after realizing they went hand-in-hand.
  • What photographers are your biggest influences? My favorite photographers are Greg Miller, Edward Curtis and Steve McCurry.
  • How long have you been shooting? I’ve been making photos for two years.
  • Why is photography and shooting so important to you? I’m happy when I get the chance to shoot photos. Capturing moments like these gives me a sense of purpose, something attainable. You can show anyone willing to look a perspective that only you can truly understand.
  • Do you feel that you’re more of a creator or a documentor? Why? I feel that I’m more a documentor, although I enjoy shooting conceptual projects with artists; muscicians and models, I feel documentary is more important. You can capture raw emotion and unscripted moments; human error is gorgeous.
  • What’s typically going through your mind when you create images? Tell us about your processes both mentally and mechanically? Typically, I try not to think too hard when I see anything worth capturing, I tend to overthink and that does more harm than good. I let things happen naturally; composition is important but “rules” aren’t real. At the end of the day, it’s ultimately your vision that others get to see.
  • Want to walk us through your processing techniques? When shooting black and white, I usually push to 800 and meter for shadows. I develop at home only to practice, but my more important rolls of film are sent to a lab and scanned to an SD card. I try not to post-process most of my images, only adjusting skin tones for color, and contrast for black and white. After I feel my images are complete, I export the files and store them on my laptop/phone then store the negatives in a folder.
  • Tell us about the project that you’re pitching, or your portfolio. My 1st completed project is a zine titled ‘American Dream’ shot entirely on Fuji Superia 200/400 with my Yashica Super 2000. It documents the people of Atlanta, and nearby cities. It gives insight to anyone who isn’t from the area. Atlanta is a culturally enriched city, and I want people to enjoy it.
  • What made you want to get into your genre? Music really made me enjoy documentary photography. Artists such as Frank Ocean; creator of albums Endless and Blond, and A$ap Rocky; NY based rapper with strong ties to fashion and film. They truly enjoy creating and their influence shows in their fanbase.
  • Tell us a bit about the gear that you use and how you feel it helps you achieve your creative vision. I use a Leica M3 rangefinder with a 50mm Serenar. It has no light meter, which helps me with guessing exposures. The shutter is really quiet, so I often can make photos of subjects without them realizing. I haven’t published a conceptual project with my M3, but it helps with my shooting on my Yashica Fx-3, which is an SLR.
 
  • What motivates you to shoot? Listening to music really motivates me to shoot; I love the nostalgia I get from listening to Nights by Frank Ocean and making photos of people being themselves.

Be sure to aslo check out American Dream by Rydell

american dream film leica people Photography Rydell Tomas Jr strangers Street Photograhy
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.