Photographer embraces creative spirit
His business card is simple and to the point: Byron Gates Jr. [artist/ photographer/writer/coffee addict].
For this inveterate coffee guzzler, coffee is not only his beverage of choice but also a budding business model as he creates a 400- plus page website filled to the rim with over 3,000 coffee-related subjects, a true soil to sip saga that he hopes to finally publish this year.
“I have been researching this subject and developing this site for almost 12 years. It is time to complete it,” Gates said.
Gates seemed born with an entrepreneurial spirit before the word really came into vogue. At the age of nine, his dad laid out a great life lesson by taking young Gates to the bank to apply for a loan to purchase dark room equipment he wanted to acquire.
“I got the loan from what was then First National Bank and paid it off on time by mowing yards in the summer and raking leaves in the winter along with an evening paper route and other chores I could charge for. With that loan, I bought an enlarger, trays and chemicals and other necessary tools to start processing my own film and prints. Little did I know that today, 60 years later, I’m still in love with photography,” Gates said.
After two years of military school, he returned to Byrd High School to graduate.
After a year at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, he moved to Santa Barbara, Calif., to attend Santa Barbara City College where his education came to a screeching halt after he volunteered to join the U.S. Navy for four years working as a naval photographer. Honorably discharged in October 1970 from the Navy; he returned to California where he attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.
His first job in Shreveport was with Jack Hodges III Advertising, working specifically for Sammy Davis, as an account rep, handling projects for the agencies clients and pitching new ones.
“I enjoyed the job, I loved being back in Shreveport, and I loved working for Sammy. Everyone loved her, she encouraged her staff to always do their best.” Gates said.
From there Gates began to freelance, until around mid-1992, when Byron May at Mid- South Press offered him a job managing the MidSouth Press graphic’s department.
In 1995, Gates’s life changed when he decided to go solo skydiving. He bailed out at 10,000 feet, free fell for about 5,000 feet at which time he deployed the chute then realized he was experiencing chute failure and was injured.
He spent a couple of years of in and out of the hospital before recovering sufficiently to get back into life.
“That accident was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I learned how important my many friends are, I learned that we can survive just about anything that happens to us, and I learned that we all must do what we love, I really believe now, that concept is our saving grace.”
During these years of recovery, Gates has embraced the arts. He writes more, publishing a book of prose, he uses his photography to examine the world around him, and he paints to embrace his creative spirit.
Gates opened a show last month of his images of Shreveport Regional Arts Council’s offices at Central ARTSTATION that runs through March 13. He took the images in November 2012, just as the architect, the construction company and SRAC’s staff were taking the final walkthrough inspection of the old firehouse. Seeing the building open, he requested and received permission to make images of the building prior to the move in date and spent the next three days taking pictures.
SRAC Executive Director Pam Atchison said Gates has persevered the attraction of the building in his images. “Byron has captured the historic beauty and elegance of the Central Fire Station during its conversion to the Central ARTSTATION,” Atchison said. “He makes every nook and cranny shine with dramatic luster! At a time when most of us could only see what was missing, late or in need of correction, Byron captured the magic and mystery of a building in the process of reclaiming its importance, dignity and worth.”
For Gates, it was a labor of love to do the project for SRAC. “SRAC is a group of very unselfish people who work hard and from the heart. We, as artists, appreciate that quality,” Gates said.
–Karl Hasten
