Through the lens of Rio Nelson’s camera, the world comes alive. Memories are captured in subtle black and white tones, while some dance in vibrant colours. Rio owned his first camera when he was just a boy, and has evolved into an expert today, at the age of 61.
Born Laird Nelson in Georgetown, he was later nicknamed Rio. He was introduced to photography in his early boyhood days through a much older cousin who visited often. His cousin, the once popular Guyanese photographer, Eustace McBean, had he been alive today would have been over 100 years old.
“I got my first camera at a kite flying competition after coming first place… I never actually took pictures with it. I was never able to put film in it. I just went around taking [pretend] pictures, clicking and clicking until I broke it,” Rio shared.
A number of years later in 1978, he purchased his first camera with his second or third paycheck. A year later, he got married to his sweetheart, Margaret, whom he met in the Guyana National Service. The camera came in handy to capture their special day, but that was as far as it went as Rio was too caught up in other things to take photography seriously.
Some years later around 1988 or 1989, he purchased his very first digital camera. It was with this camera that he was able to explore. His first camera used film and he had to be careful to use it for the right shots as he could not delete and try again if he was not pleased. Five or six years later, Rio decided to take up photography commercially.
He and his family later migrated to the US where they lived in New York for two months, then moved to Santiago, California. They remained there for 25 years and today they are settled in Charleston, South Carolina.
According to the photographer, it was not until he decided to take up photography as a profession that he decided to learn about his camera and actually read the manual. Prior to then, every photo was taken on the auto setting. It took him several months to learn the fundamentals. Rio read books and watched videos. Wanting to know more he paid a photographer US$300, for four hours to learn about using shutter speed and other settings. The session only lasted a day as he was not planning on having to find another US$300 for another session.
“I took a lot of colour pictures. Since I had no models to work with, I took a lot of pictures of my wife,” he said. “She used to encourage me to take black and white pictures and it wasn’t until seeing Marco Grob’s pictures [that he did]. At that time, I worked with Aggregate Industries (now Lafargeholcim). The company had a book filled with black and white photos. Marco had taken all the pictures in the book. After seeing the book and seeing the different black and white toned pictures, that influenced my photography.”
Along with Grob’s work, Rio was also inspired by famous American wedding photographer, Jasmine Star. What he liked was the kind of photos she took and how detailed she was at capturing the little things, but he was not too excited by her washed-out, colour work as he went for a more natural and vibrant look.
Rio eventually became fascinated with street photography and took quite a number of photos in this genre. He would approach people in the street and ask to take their photos. He loved doing this but stopped for a while after an encounter with an irritated man.
Asked about the pros of what he does, Rio said, “Well it’s not the pay. I’ve not made it big time to say I could live off of photography but what I can say is that as a photographer I see the artistic side of something that people take for granted. People see the same things and never notice it then I take a photo and people exclaim over it. Photography causes photographers to see differently after some time. I lean more to the landscape photography genre. I like more of the beaches, sunsets, and sunrises. Since I’ve been here in South Carolina, there’s the Folly Beach Pier [where] I like to visit to take pictures. Every time I go there, I capture the same views but from a different perspective. It’s never the same, every photo shows the clouds are the different, the water is different, the sunsets and sunrises are different.
“I’m at that stage where I’ll take a camera and will nail it every time.”
His portfolio has more than 10,000 images, he noted, but his most favourite at this point is probably one with his grandson peeking out from behind his wife. “He was standing right next to his grandmother. He was a bit shy, so he hid behind her and knowing he’d look out from behind her again I kept the camera [trained] on them and when he did, I took the shot,” he reminisced.
When asked what the riskiest thing he had done for a photo was, Rio said he has never really put himself in harm’s way for a photo. But maybe it was showing up at the funeral for the victims of the Charleston church massacre.
In 2015, nine people were killed during bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church including the church’s senior pastor. At the time of the incident, Rio was recovering from a heart surgery he had done two months prior. Though he should have been at home resting, he wanted to be there that day. Accompanied by his wife, he arrived at 4 am to secure seats. He stayed there until 2 pm that day.
Former US president Barack Obama was at the ceremony and as much as he hoped to get a photo of him he could not. Nonetheless, he did get to take photos of many other prominent persons who attended the funeral. Taking a photo of Obama has not been scratched off his list. In fact, if there was one person he could have the lifetime opportunity of meeting, it would be the former president whom he greatly admires. “I’d want to not just sit with him but to do a portrait session with him also.” And not meaning to toot his own horn, Rio added, “I’ve seen a lot of portraits of him and I feel I can shoot a better one.”
Several of his striking portrait shots have been conversation starters. Among them is one he took on his last visit to Guyana in December 2016. He was attending the wedding of a relative and was the designated photographer. As it was the Christmas holidays, the family got together to distribute presents to less fortunate children.
Somewhere in all of this commotion, he noticed an arresting young woman sitting at the bar. Turning to his wife, he said, “I’ve got to take a picture of her”. After approaching the woman at the bar and gaining her consent to take the photo, he went ahead and took the shot. Rio said that to date he still thinks it is one of his best pictures.
Another of his statement portraits, is one he took of his daughter-in-law wearing a brightly coloured scarf of red and orange hues. The photo was inspired by photojournalist Steven McCurry’s most talked of photo, ‘Afghan Girl’, a headshot of a green-eyed girl wearing a red headscarf intensely staring at the camera. The photo taken of his daughter-in-law, he said, was not done with any artificial light but with whatever light came from the window.
Returning to the subject of his wife, Rio said, “My wife is my everything. There’s not enough words to describe that. We’ve been through thick and thin.” Nelson said. In fact, for him, his family is his greatest treasure. Together the two have four children, three boys and a girl (one of his sons is also a photographer), and ten grandchildren. His 84-year-old mother is his only surviving parent and he has a sister also. However, his two brothers have since passed.
As a boy growing up in Guyana, Rio attended kindergarten taught by a Mrs Murray. He does not remember her name entirely, but she was his favourite teacher. The school was situated on Bent Street and housed in the bottom flat of a two-storey building, opposite Tutorial High. The photographer also attended St Mary’s Primary and Charlestown Secondary. Describing his personality back then, Rio said, “I was shy and mischievous. No one ever knew who was creating the mischief.”
At present, he is back in school pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Cyber Security at the Colorado Technical University.
His free time is spent playing with his grandchildren, dabbling in a bit of painting, and playing video games. He added that he might be old for video games, but they keep his mind active.
His favourite dish is beef pepperpot which he noted is the only dish his wife allows him to make. Beef curry ranks second, and mixed cook-up comes in third, preferably split peas cook-up.
Asked to share a favourite life quote, Rio said he had two. The first, which he learnt from his mother, “stoop to conquer”, teaches humility as way to success. The second, he learnt from his headmaster while attending St Mary’s Primary: “to fail to prepare, is to prepare to fail”.
Rio specializes in event photography, portraits, landscapes, and street photography.
More of his work can be found on Facebook at Laird Nelson Photography and on his photography website at https://lairdnelsonphotography.com
