Michael Babiak

This website lets me share something I love, photography, with friends and family.

I took photographs sporadically from my teens, and then digital came along. It was a revelation: the freedom to experiment, take chances, and learn by doing. What made me want to get serious was an Avedon exhibition, In the American West. The directness of those portraits, the way his subjects seemed completely exposed, was enthralling, and it made me want to become a better photographer. Over the last ten or fifteen years I've taken courses at Stanford, where Neal Menschel introduced me to other photographers whose work I instantly loved: Sebastião Salgado, Jay Maisel, Steve McCurry, and Joel Meyerowitz.

Photography takes me outward, into the world and into other people's lives. I mostly shoot while traveling, and while I love a good landscape or street scene, what I'm really after is the unguarded, unposed moment with a person: someone lost in thought, light that won't last, the accidental geometry of a street. The pictures here are sorted by feeling rather than by trip. When I get home I make a trip album, which is my version of the journey and doesn't always match my wife's preferred account.