This is where it more or less began – as in photographing these snoek fishermen at work. Well, almost. It took a year or two and a few shoe shuffling footsteps to get out of the starting box, so to speak.

I was living in a place and where, at that time, there were just a handful of full colour magazines and almost as few publishing opportunities.

My interest in photography, like many of my generation I guess, was nurtured on a diet of Life magazine, National Geographic magazine, Paris Match and other magazines that were remnants of that era.

Where I lived as a kid I either found these magazine heaped or bundled up some where – usually in a shed car port or under some stairs somewhere. That or in a neighbourhood book exchange shops and the like.

On the way back home from school there was always the local news agency in some shopping centre on the way home and there, would often spend an hour or so paging through magazines of the day. Sort of recall that new magazines would usually come in on a Tuesday – a good day to get to the shopping centre. That was then and while I was at school.

Between one thing and the next, decided that I was going to be a photographer – specifically a social documentary photography. I was going to go out there to take pictures and write stories. I’ve got to add here that, at this point, I was not that far off 21. My parents and senior members of my family were none too thrilled at the prospect. Had my mother telling me to get out and get a job. My grandparents were a little concerned feeling that I might be better suited to something a little more progressive and in keeping with family tradition. My father was hoping that I may sort of follow after him and get into something more practical. He was an engineer.

Well, I was interested in architecture. After completing my military service, I spent a year doing work experience with a firm of noted architects in the city where my father was living at the time. While there, sort of figure out that, after 5 years at university and more or less having to work another 4 to 5 years to pay off my student loan I’d be in my 30′s before I would be able to make my own way in the field.

Well, at 21 or so – 10 years was a life time away. And being the precocious prick that I was then, what more was there to say? At the time and having just completed my military training and passed mustering in one of that country’s elite military units and surviving that, I was almost invincible – captain of his own ship and master of his own destiny and all that. I was going to be a photographer and that was it.
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TECHNICAL NOTES: At the time I was using a Canon F-1 and various lenses. Here I was probably using a 28 mm FD lens. Would need to look at the negs again but, I was probably using Ilford HP4 at the time – yes, HP4 and not HP5 as I was to use later years. I was still experimenting at the time so I’m not sure what developer/fixer combinations I was using then and that’s about it.
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This and other similar images can be now be found over at my image archive at Photoshelter.
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Rogan is currently based in Hong Kong where he undertakes photography assignments and commissions for corporate, design and editorial clients. Rogan specialises in Arcitectural, Event and Portrait photography.
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