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Photographer Nathaniel Paolinelli has a knack for ending up in interesting places. He’s photographed lowrider culture in his hometown of Albuquerque and halfway around the world in Thailand. He’s spent time with cowboys, bikers and people living along the U.S.-Mexico border. He’s been welcomed into homes for family holidays, photographed a motorcycle club funeral and, somewhere along the way, even managed to reunite a man fresh out of prison with his high school girlfriend after taking his portrait. Which is funny, because photography wasn’t even part of the original plan.
Nathaniel picked up a camera in his 30s. It was an office Nikon, which accompanied Nathaniel (along with its instruction manual) on a trip to Mexico. From there, photography gradually became a much bigger part of his life. In this episode of the Street Photography Magazine Podcast, Bob and I talk with Nathaniel about where that camera has taken him since.
A big part of the conversation centers on documentary and street photography in Albuquerque, the city Nathaniel has called home his entire life. Early on, he thought interesting photographs required traveling somewhere else. Eventually, he realized how much there was to explore right where he lived. That realization led him deep into Albuquerque’s lowrider community. What began with showing up, talking to people and making photographs slowly became something more. Today, Nathaniel says he doesn’t really feel like an outsider documenting the community anymore. He has become part of it in his own way.
That experience also led Nathaniel to an unexpected book deal. On a whim, he spent three days making a small lowrider zine called Seventh and Central. Somehow, a copy found its way to the University of New Mexico Press. A phone call followed, then a meeting, then a publishing contract. This March, Seventh and Central: Lowiders became a full-length book about New Mexico lowrider culture. “The power of a zine,” as we decided during the conversation.
We also get into Nathaniel’s trip to Thailand, where he sought out the country’s lowrider scene and discovered that a shared culture could bridge a pretty substantial language barrier. With translation apps, hand gestures and a camera, he found himself welcomed into a community thousands of miles from Albuquerque.
There are plenty of other detours along the way in this conversation, some of which it would have been nice to spend a little more time on: getting caught in an earthquake, being confronted by the military while photographing near Juárez, whether social media is worth the effort, why (if?) Nathaniel owns too many cameras, and the Leica Q2 that got its sensor damaged by a laser. RIP.
More than anything, though, this is a conversation with someone who genuinely enjoys going places, meeting people and seeing what happens next.
A Selection of Nathaniel’s Photos
Links from the show
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