SHANE BURNELL – My journey to photography
“When you believe in something with a full true heart the universe recognises & reacts. A self portrait with FujiFilm South Africa & the XT-2. The next steps are going to be ground breaking. My passion has held a life time of energy already and now it’s going to explore. Big thank you to Beverleigh M’Crystal & Hein Hough for finding me at the perfect moment in time.”
Growing up my family was filled with carpenters, photographers and musicians. I had an interest for all of these careers yet cameras caught my eye as they just looked more interesting than tools and instruments. Something that can capture time seemed to outshine the rest.
I definitely took an interest at a very young age to the extent of getting my first toy camera at the age of 3 years old and my first real camera around 7/8 years old.
From a young age I have always looked at the world differently to others and I do tend to find everything beautiful in it’s own interesting way. From the corner of a table to a mountain top peak, it all has its potential to be eye catching & intriguing.
My teenage years where all over the show, skateboarding, surfing and trying to break the rules wherever possible. A rebel at heart, an outsider & someone who wasn’t understood for being different. This changed many peoples perspective of me but my understanding of myself was strong no matter how different I appeared.
From skateboarding and being on the street constantly, surrounding myself with street artists & other like minded friends, street culture became very strong within me. Then the tattoos started haha …and never ended !
Time passed, and quickly, & I started getting into the film industry doing stunt work and skating. After awhile this turned into a professional career in modeling and after learning so much about both sides of the camera, my longing to capture photographs came back in a seriously strong way.
I’ve always been very emotional and I definitely wear my heart on my sleeve. The world, as beautiful as it is, can also be a very harsh place to be. When I was recently living in Bali, this changed my life. Just how I was treated by the locals, It was pure and honest and this made me decide to make photography my life and dedicate myself to capturing images that will bring warmth, awareness, understanding and beauty to whoever sees my photos.
My passion is animals and love dogs more than anything, so my aim is working on a campaign which is starting soon, to shoot happy portraits of the Bullie breeds in shelters which struggle to be adopted due to the negative stigma around them. I hope this turns into something great where I can travel around the world and take beautiful pictures of my favourite animals and prove that the are the most gentle, intelligent & amazing companions ever.
By Shane Burnelll
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