MEET THE ARTBURST VIDEOGRAPHER: CARLOS OCHOA

Because of a deep love of photography and thanks to his wife who is a theater and dance writer, Carlos Ochoa’s road to Artburst was a pretty direct one. He met Anne Tschida, Artburst editor, and writer Celeste Fraser-Delgado when his wife, Mia Leonin, was writing for the site Category 305. That connection eventually led to his video producing gig with Artburst.

After a year, Category 305 closed down due to lack of funding. Then when Artburst started, he and Anne and Celeste began talking about the visual component for the site.

“I am a photographer originally, but when these conversations began I was thinking about the possibility of video,” he says. “I was feeling very comfortable with the transition from photo to video since it’s very similar. I just had to learn the technology.

“For the first few videos I was experimenting and trying to figure out a template and personality for each piece and now, videos are a major component of the site.

From the beginning, the people who were the subjects loved the location video shoots. And as he was producing them, he was learning about dance, which was relatively new to him but he has learned quickly thanks to his musical background.

“I’m a musician too, so I’m familiar with the movement aspect of dance, I’m learning very fast. I’m reading a lot and educating myself. Many times I have to do double duty and also do the interviews,” he says.

Aside from Artburst, he shoots the dance, music and theater performances for New World School of the Arts.

A native of Peru, he studied journalism/communications and followed the audio/visual tract while studying. At the time he was more interested in photography and started working in newspapers in Peru, jumping around doing freelance for the country’s 10 major papers.

He decided to come to Miami in 1991 due to the troubled political situation in Peru. He worked for a while for the Miami Herald, shooting for the arts section. He also did catalog shoots for local visual artists and even covered weddings.

It was in the 1990s when he first became curious about video, especially since the technology was changing. Although he enjoyed the darkroom process, when video started on its new course he began learning.

“Video has evolved so much since then. It has become much more accessible now and I really like it. I’m planning to do this for a long time,” he says.