Cesar Florencio

STORY BY PAMELA  Y. ROZON

Published Dec 2022

15-year-old Cesar Florencio has been a part of the Bronx Junior Photo League since the summer of 2021. He started in the Intro to Documentary Storytelling class (HS1) and eventually entered our Advanced Documentary Storytelling class, which focuses on film photography. He is a sophomore high school student at Harvest Collegiate in Manhattan. Cesar describes himself as a teenager who loves taking photos and has a deep appreciation for film photography. 

What inspired you to do film photography?

When I first wanted to do film photography I was still in the digital High School class, but I would always stay late after class. I found out my teacher Sean Sirota did it and I was like “What is film photography? Isn’t it that stuff in movies?” That’s when he told me there was an advanced High School analog class. I came in a few times on those days that they were teaching and I watched. I remember seeing them print in the darkroom. It was so cool. I told one of my teachers, Carlos Nunez, that I really wanted to do it and he lent me one of his film cameras. 

In your opinion, do you prefer digital or film?

Film–because it requires more skill. It’s a completely different mentality when you do film photography. When you do digital, you have an SD card and you can take as many photos as you want, and when the card is full you just delete the ones you don’t like. But with film, it’s about budget, because I buy most of my own film. You try to think and be more conscious of what you’re shooting, why you’re shooting it, and how you’re shooting it.

How would you say the BDC has helped you go over the little bumps in the road when you’re learning film?

Whenever I had a question or something happened I asked my teachers. I really like the teachers–they’re professional, but you can get personal with them and you don’t have to only ask them about photography. They’re like friends. A community of people who are there for you. They just taught me basically everything I know about photography and they continue to teach me.

Can you talk about the recent photo project you did in Mexico?

My mom went to Mexico to fix a family issue. My grandma has Alzheimer’s and she’s developing rapidly. My grandma lives in solitude and the only company that she has is her Chihuahuas. Nobody else comes to visit or take care of her.  My mom, as soon as she got there, started cleaning. She hired workers to start rebuilding her house and it cost her a lot of money. I think the main reason we went to Mexico is because my mom tried to convince my grandma to come back with us to New York. My grandma has a few other sons and daughters but many of them came to New York or New Jersey. Only three of her sons live in Mexico but they’re all far away. My grandma told us that she fell three times within the last year and that it’s really difficult for her to build up the strength to go out and buy herself food. So my mom tried to convince her to come back, but all my grandma knows is the house and her chihuahuas so she said no. That was really heartbreaking for my mom, but she left. She did the best she could with the time she had, three weeks to create a better living situation for her. So, I just wanted to express that. I’ve noticed since I was little, my mom would work hard, almost every day so that we could all have an education here, go to college, get a good job and have a happy life. I just wanted to use this project to express my gratitude because she’s done so much.   

Do you have any comments to add for people who are starting to learn film or any new students to the BDC?

I mean, learning takes time. You’re not going be amazing off the bat. I think one of the biggest challenges for me when I was starting out in photography was that I just liked taking pretty pictures. But I learned from my teachers that pretty pictures aren’t always good
pictures. It was difficult transitioning from taking pretty pictures to meaningful pictures. I just tried to photograph what was important to me and my life. Everybody leads different lives and everybody is interested in different things. Photograph your life. A lot of other people are going to find it interesting even though you don’t.