Cameron Sterling

How I Discovered Photography & Visual Narratives, by Cameron Sterling

I brought a 35-mm automatic film camera my first summer at the Keewaydin canoe camp in Ontario. I was 13. One of my fellow campers had a manual 35mm SLR camera with a beautiful lens by comparison. Looking through the viewfinder while we were on our first trip, I saw how a lens could allow manual focusing and sharply framed compositions. 

It was my first memorable feeling for the technical aspect of making images connecting with my vision. I still remember the details of that moment looking north up the lake from our island campsite.

The next summer I brought a 35-mm SLR camera given to me over the winter by my grandfather who also loved photography and recognized my emerging interest. The first few summers back in Ontario I made photographs to share the wilderness experience with family and friends back home. 

After a few years past I began to look for things I hadn't photographed before, like the tactile details of a tumpline knot or blackened fire irons. Back home I would print, edit, and put my photographs into albums. 

This was when I first learned how images and collections of images could become a narrative.