food & drink photography & motion
Sep 2024
Manny Rodriguez
Dallas
Some moments are so vividly etched into your memory that you never forget them. For Manny Rodriguez it was the moment he realized he wanted to be a photographer. Born in Havana Cuba, and raised in Miami, he didn't pick up the camera until the age of 18 when he bought a Canon for no other reason other than boredom. a Canon FTB-n, which he purchased mail-order for 359.00, and that included a 50mm 1.4 lens, leather case, lens cleaning supplies, and three rolls of Kodachrome film with processing included!
He became absolutely fascinated with the ability to capture a moment in time, or capture a subject, and keep it, take it with him. Then, the pivotal moment arrived; “I remember right around my 19th birthday, on a Sunday morning at exactly 9:05, standing on the south east side of the Miami River Bridge, me pointing the camera at the buildings downtown, saying to myself out loud, I have to make this a career.’ It was that simple,” he says.
He was hired by a studio several months later and worked his way up to Junior photographer over the next couple of years before going full-time freelance.
In 1994, Manny relocated to Dallas, where he began specializing in shooting still life, food, and interiors.