A snapshot of Karla's life as a photographer

I loved to capture beauty and photography was quicker than sketching

Karla Darocas talks to My Guide Alicante about her love of photography.

First of all, I would like you to know that I am born and raised in Canada. I married a Spaniard and I love living and being here in Spain. I am grateful to Spain in so many ways, mostly artistically.

Because I was raised rural, surrounded by nature and adorable little wild animals, I was always interested in beauty. 

Grandpa taught me to look out the window and find a corner of beauty and try and sketch it out. He showed me how to see the simplicity that made me smile. And together we would try and sketch it.  To manifest the beauty and let it make us happy even more.

Photography: I had every kind of camera growing up. I loved to capture beauty and photography was quicker than sketching.

When I was 16, I did some reporting for my hometown newspaper. The deal was that I had to take the photos to go with a written report. Unlike today with digital cameras, I was given one roll of film – 12 shots. I had to be fast with the shots, especially at the local ice arena where the weekly hockey team had their matches, home-grown sporting events – hockey night in Canada .

I also had to grab good portrait shots, as quickly as possible – again of young hockey players with dreams in their eyes of playing for the big leagues one day.

My publisher at the time told me that it was the photos that sold the newspapers each week - as all the local family and friends could witness their youngsters in their adorable hockey gear and have that “proud” moment.

That got me hooked on photography and it also got me thinking about the power of the visual image - as a quest into the human condition. 

After high school in my small town, I ventured into the big city to further my education and hang out. I enrolled in a fashion course that included photography and journalism. That worked for me – the fashion designers and models loved to have their photos taken and they let me interview them.

Then I opened my first enterprise, a fashion boutique and after a couple of years, realised that to lose money wasn’t fun and that I was stupid when it came to business and being an entrepreneur.

So, I figured out a way to get myself into a big university where I could learn all the answers to my questions and survive in our economic world a little bit better.

At this university,  I went deep into the Fine Arts & Film Honours programme and strangely enough, I discovered the Spanish Masters.  Here was 500 years of visual language, stories, history, innovation, politics all wrapped up and well documented.

To help pay for my tuition, I arranged with the head of the Fine Arts department to have some of my fees bartered if I taught a class in photography and darkroom techniques. I spent the next year in the dark with students who tested my will. But, I survived.