Today we’d like to introduce you to Carina Mask.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Carina. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
More than I seeked out photography – it found me. My partner, Christina Mendenhall, handed me a Nikon D200 and told me to show her what Japan meant to me. With a rather short and impromptu tutorial, I took the camera to Japan with me with very lofty goals of capturing and documenting the essence of Japan.
The first photos were predominantly over exposed landscapes of metropolitan Tokyo, and then, my mother’s hometown of Omagari, located in Akita Prefecture in northern Japan. The heart and soul of the country, at least for me, truly lay in the slightly less traveled reaches in the mountainous regions of northeastern Japan.
I began to photograph both my grandparents- my two reluctant models.
When I was 18 years old, my grandmother was diagnosed with dementia, my grandfather was diagnosed with Stage III Lung Carcinoma in 2012. I felt an urge to document their journey.
I hid the photos I took on countless hard drives because I believed the images to be mediocre.
However, near the end of my grandmother’s journey, I began to share some of the outtakes with my family. Selfishly, in hopes that they would buy that ticket, come to Japan, come to Akita, to say thank you and goodbye to them.
Christina then advised me to reach out to find photographers that were doing similar projects. I wrote many photojournalists I admired, and they all gave me recommendations. One photojournalist, in particular, told me to reach out to an Alzheimer’s and caregivers organization in Singapore.
I reached out to the organization and not only were my photos picked up, but also my story.
Has it been a smooth road?
Anything worth having in life, I feel that you have to fight for it.
I believe you need to overcome obstacles, and that your journey molds you, shapes you, and prepares you.
I have lost three people in the last four years that were pivotal in my upbringing.
Right after I lost my grandmother in January 2015, I returned to Miami to work with kids, and without warning, I was laid off.
This really forced me out of my comfort zone. So I decided to be tenacious because failure wasn’t an option.
I was so hungry to impress photo editors and so hungry for the work. I was overzealous sometimes with the workload and I forget to eat all day and ended up exhausted and would literally make myself sick.
The huge wake-up call for me was in 2017 when I lost my father.
The last day I saw my father alive, I was rushing to take my father and mother to the airport because I had a photo gig in Fort Lauderdale. I sped through eating lunch with my parents, sped through Miami International Airport to drop them off, sped through the goodbyes and hugs without even imagining this would be the last time to see him.
Being a freelance photographer is amazing, but sometimes just enjoying time with your family and the company you choose to surround yourself with is everything. Learning how to balance the workload and self-care is something that I constantly struggle with and continue to work on.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Through The Shutter – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Photographers are storytellers and documentarians.
One thing I have learned from my life experiences is that, to take images that matter, you have to be present. Of course, not just in a physical sense. To be emotionally vulnerable and empathetic with your subjects. I believe that comes across through with my portraiture and even professional headshots.
Travel was second nature to me when I was growing up; everything from family vacations to adolescent soul searching. I was running off to countries and continents that I had never been to, and that felt closer to finding home and discovering myself.
I found that diving headfirst into a countries food, language and history were a critical and essential part of understanding Photographers are storytellers and documentarians.
One thing I have learned from my life experiences is that, to take images that matter, you have to be present. Of course, not just in a physical sense. To be emotionally vulnerable [vulnerable has a negative connotation to me so can you come up with other word] and empathetic with your subjects. I believe that comes across through with my portraiture and even professional headshots.
Travel was second nature to me when I was growing up; everything from family vacations to adolescent soul searching. I was running off to countries and continents that I had never been to, and that felt closer to finding home and discovering myself.
I found that diving headfirst into a countries food, language and history were critical and essential part of understanding a culture.
I do love photographing events that revolve around food, culture and the arts. Recently, I was given to opportunity to photograph Fort Lauderdale’s Art & Design week and my photos were published by Forbes Magazine.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I am truly thankful to Miami for all of the opportunity that it has given me. Through photography and writing, I have been blessed with meeting some amazing people who are now my family.
Miami is a small and big city at the same time – many of the characters are interwoven and their stories intertwine. It’s less like the 6 degrees of separation, closer to two degrees of separation. Even though we are a big city, it’s nice to see how interconnected how all of us, and our lives are.
The bustling metropolitan city of Miami is a melange of unique, beautiful cultures. Every inch of Miami has a vibrant past, neighborhoods like Little Havana, to Overtown, to Miami Beach.
If you look hard enough, there are hidden gems just hiding in plain sight in South Florida, Phenomenal food and cultural events just waiting to be discovered by the avid adventurer.
As same with every big city, Miami has very limited parking spaces in certain neighborhoods, which is a bit of a problem for photographers. So my least favorite part of the city is probably loading and unloading photo gear from my car and lugging it to clients. However, the silver lining is, I don’t ever need to pay for Cross Fit, I can just carry light stands and sandbags all day for free.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1404 E Las Olas Blvd
Suite 2098 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 - Website: Carinaami.com
- Phone: 9548682475
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Carina.Mask
- Facebook: Facebook.com/Carina.mask
Image Credit:
All photos by Carina Mask
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