For Angel Colmenares, photographer, cinematographer and San Juan Island resident, traveling around the world for his work is nothing new. He prefers to go by Angel, and he was born in Cuba and raised in Mexico City, eventually making his way to the Pacific Northwest during his high school years, when his family moved to Seattle from Mexico. Ever since he was a child, Angel had an interest in visual arts, specifically cinematography and filmmaking. However, due to an accident that caused him to lose sight in his right eye when he was 17, he thought he could not pursue filmmaking, transitioning to photography instead. He went to Brooks Institute of Photography in Ventura, CA, and after graduating, he worked as a commercial and fashion photographer in major hubs like Mexico City, New York City and San Francisco.

After his work in photography, Angel decided not to limit his artistic abilities and sold all of his photography equipment, moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in cinematography. There, he worked on various films, documentaries and music videos as a cinematographer for ten years. After his time in LA, he and his wife moved to Hawaii, where he began shooting film for weddings, due to the lack of filmmaking opportunities there. His cinematic film style was well received for his wedding shoots, and they remained in Hawaii for many years before eventually moving back to Seattle, where he shot music videos for up and coming rappers in the area. In 2017, he and his family purchased a house on San Juan Island, making time to visit whenever they could. When COVID-19 hit during the spring of 2020, Angel and his family decided to permanently reside on the island, with his son starting at Friday Harbor High School that fall.

When looking at the photos currently displayed in his studio on First Street, Studio 50, one can witness Angel’s gritty, authentic style. Growing up, Angel loved watching art films with foreign directors, heavily influencing his preference for black and white photos and the imperfections of film – visible grain, out of focus shots – to the pixel-perfect images of digital photography.

“That’s what I love about the old style of photography: film has a feeling to it,” said Angel. “Now you have digital, which is so perfect in a way, and it has taken a bit of the soul of what photography is about.”

With artificial intelligence advancing more each day, Angel speculates that photography, especially older styles, is a dying art. Soon, people will be able to create a desired image without taking a photo of it.

“There’s something about sitting in front of a person you don’t even know and making that connection and capturing that moment. I like meeting people on the street or wherever it is, and having that connection, which is rare now,” said Angel.

When it comes to subject matter, Angel is not picky. He believes in creating what you can in the moment. Due to the constraints of COVID-19 on face-to-face interactions, Colmenares mainly drove around the island, capturing island landscape shots, including the towering image of English Camp which can be found in Studio 50. Despite his flexibility when choosing a subject, Angel often gravitates towards portrait photography. Whereas a landscape photo doesn’t always do justice to its location, a portrait can capture the visible character and genuineness of its subject.

“[A portrait] is just that. There’s nothing outside of that – everything is in their eyes, in their face,” said Angel.

His current show, “Perfect Imperfections,” perfectly combines the authenticity of the subjects and the film it was shot on to create unique, antiquated portraits. In the summer of 2016, Angel found himself in an artistic rut, unhappy with his work and his over-attentive editing. Thankfully around this time, he had come across a 19th century photographic procedure known as wet plate collodion by chance, and he traveled to Colorado to learn the process. Its method vastly differed from digital photography, taking 20 minutes to develop one photo and involving multiple chemicals, light-sensitive reactions and dark room processing.

“That’s what I needed. I needed to get my hands dirty again, to spend time creating and processing film. It brought me back to my love of photography,” said Angel.

Hitching his self-made darkroom trailer to his pickup truck, Angel continued to push his boundaries as he made the journey to North Dakota to photograph the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock Reservation in October 2016. He views the experience as one of growth, going outside of his comfort zone as an introvert to ask permission to photograph the protesters, as well as utilizing an intricate photographic process. While he was there, he connected with many natives who invited him to their powwows, and he later photographed one in Smokiam near Soap Lake. As his first wet plate collodion show at Studio 50, “Perfect Imperfections” is a triumph to his growth as an artist and person, and pays homage to those whose stories are often forgotten or left untold.

Following the show’s run through December, Angel will exhibit photography from his travels to Antarctica, Africa and portraits from this year’s All Souls procession for Day of the Dead in Tucson, Arizona. He is also working on his first book of portraits as well. The project will consist of shots of important community members on San Juan Island and their contributions to the island. Recently, he has decided to expand the project to include other prominent figures he has met over the years, and considers this project to be his main priority at the moment.

“There’s something real and natural and hardworking about [these community members] that I really admire,” said Angel.

Studio 50 is open Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., but he welcomes anyone to knock on the studio door at any time, regardless of the sign reading “closed.” For more information about Angel Colmenares and his work, visit https://www.50onfirst.com/.