Let’s begin with the time when you got your camera at 13 years old. How did you feel when you picked up that first camera & when did you know you wanted to be a photographer? I know you overcame a lot to be where you are today. Can you share with us that incredible turning point?
Yeah, I think when my father gave me my first camera in the rainforest in Costa Rica and I proceeded to get lost in the rainforest and one of the tribe guys we were staying with, he found me wondering around and turned out I was being tracked by a panther and didn't realize it because when he found me, he was talking but I couldn't really speak Spanish, and he showed me the paw prints on the floor, I was like oh my god! my first Dory moment with the camera! ( To the audience: My nickname to Zachary is Dory! from Finding Nemo, because when we were in Portugal he was being distracted by everything en route to anywhere, so he became Dory!, hence his first Dory moment… )
I was getting tracked by a major predator without even knowing, so that was kind of interesting... and I think, fast forward.. I didn't really know the camera was going to be such a big part of my life.
When I was 18, I got busted with drugs and all kind of stuff, facing a good prison sentence, and I got pardoned. The red sea split for me, my judge offered me to go to rehab, so I didn't think twice about it, I went off to rehab, I was going to go to school for business, and after getting in touch with myself in rehab and learning the steps of recovery, I said " I want to go to school for something that makes me happy!" and I knew I liked photography, I knew I wasn't the best painter or whatever, I knew I could draw, but I had no technical skills, all I knew is that I wanted to do it. So by the time I arrived at college I was ready for it. I had been through the ringer with the law, my family relationships were on the fringe because nobody trusted me, it was a nightmare. So little by little I started to rebuild in school, and I think that turning point was essential to what I am right now.
I learned my ethos from the rules of recovery, like how to be honest, tell the truth, do the right thing. The way you keep everything is by giving it all away, and I don't think that concept is normal to most people. Most people are takers not givers, so, photography became an extension of how I give.
Zack in Miami