Hello, my name is Juan Carlos Leiva Amoros, peruvian born in 19th July 1972 and I am a Photographer.
I started taking pictures for first time when I was about 18 years old, at that time I went back to my hometown, Cajamarca, in the north mountains of Peru, on a vacation and I had borrowed my uncle's cam, and old Olympus he bought second hand, with a fix 35 mm lense, I had no idea at that time about cameras, about expsosure, about speed..and all of that, I just follwed the icons in the dial on the cam, I think there were two, one for the focusing...and one more, with some icons to choose from, for the exposure acording to the lighting conditions. Any way...all I knew at that timeis that I wanted to do as beautiful pictures as those I had seen in the cards sold by my friends the Priests from the Society of Sain Paulus, I really loved those pictures...so I wanted to do the same. Some of the pictures came out very nice...but most of them were just snap shotos with out much sense, most of uf us do that and not only for the first time but some continue to do it all life long, hehehehehe....no problem...but I really wanted to do better than that and I decided to learn, but I could not study formaly coz my time was not good for any school, I had to work ful time in restaurant...I hated it! But turned out to be a great thig to me (I accepted it later) because at my young age I had money enough to buy my own camera, the first one was a Zenit for $50 us dolars and later I bought 2 Pentax Spotmatic...(I remeber now...hehhe one was of my uncle's ..he had it in very bad conditions, I offered $100 us dolars....but now that I recall.. I never paid to him !! ..maybe he felt sorry to charge because it was in such a bad conditions and I had to send it to the repair shop before I used it..it is funny I rember this now after maybe 15 years....I feel guilty now....I like paying for my stuff...I do not know how it got forgoten. (Hehehe)No problem.
In a situation I will not tell, I lost my Zenit, but later I bought a twin for my Pentax Spotmatic, with some nice lenses from a very good friend of mine, a gentleman called Nicholas Olivier, a customer of the restaurant I worked , who later became a good friend of mine. After a trip to Chile, where I took about 6 rolls in 18 days ( that was alot for me at at hat time) I showed my pictures to him, he liked them and tought me my first lessons about the composition rules in photography. This gentleman also is the responsible taht I have good english skills because even though he spoke perfectly spanish since the moment he knew I was learning english he rather used englsih with me, it hapenned that he was an english teacher and I would say better he was a "great english teacher", a purist in the language. I will always remember him. So, since I had no much chances to enter a school I just decided to buy magazines that tought photography, books as well and ask for the advice from some friends and customers who were photographers. It happened one night when I was serving a lovely couple that the gentlemam congratulated me for my service wishing for me to have my own restaurant because he understood that this should be my dream, having myselsf as I was in the restaurant business ( by the way the restaurant I worked was one the best restaurants in Lima, and in all Peru as well), but I explained to him that it was not my wish.... that I loved to sing and take photos....seeing that he handled to me his business card, wich said: CARLOS ROJAS photographer, I loved the plain way he had put his name and tittle and knowing already that he was such a gentleman, I knew I was in front of a real professional photographer. He made an invitation for me to visit his studio... i did go..and it was fantastic!!...one of those experiences that marked my life. I learned so much in the few hours he let me watch his shooting, i was seeing someone working not just experimenting or trying...the picture had to come out good....that was something I was happy to see. My first contact with real photography.
