Every time I begin to forget why I make pictures, I’m saved by an image I can never forget.
To say I’ve always been a creative soul is cliché, but true. I was the kid who took things apart just to see what made them tick. And to a large degree, I’m still that same kid. Only bigger, and older. And I only get paid when I figure out how to put things back together.
I was a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. I could fieldstrip an M-16 blindfolded and engage a target from 500 yards. But the military wasn’t my calling. After four years of serving with people that would touch my life forever, I traded my weapon for a camera — and learned about myself.
In the thirteen years that followed, I was reborn through newspaper newsrooms.
Long hours, immense pressure, strange requests, and even stranger personalities; I drank it all in – scribbling chapters of mental notes all the way. I was thrown into countless situations, where chaos was the norm, the potential for a positive outcome was dubious, and expectations were very high.
The camera has taken me around the world and into the lives of countless beautiful people. Today I shoot a healthy mixture of commercial, editorial, and personal work. And every image I make has a thread of those early years running through it.
For assignments, please reach out:
carl@carlcostas.com | 916.826.1351