Not just a Photographer
I started life with an intense need toward creativity
It all started when I was a kid, constantly all the time making, creating, drawing, painting and modeling with clay. I was always trying to get that all elusive 35mm camera from dad. Constantly being told you better not break it and walking on egg shells when I had it. I saved my allowance and bought my own camera, nothing fancy or expensive but it was mine. All I had to do was save allowance in order to get film and pay for developing. Eventually I was able to take classes in the creative forms that interested me the most, basically all of them. I took classes in art, painting, drawing and photography. I took more classes such as carpentry jewelry making - yes I learned how to cut and shape gem stones, make and set bezel and prong settings and cast metal into anything I could ever want. Then it was pottery, I learned how to throw pottery on a potters wheel and I don’t mean one of those electric things. I threw pottery on a manual wheel with a huge flywheel that I had to kick with my feet to keep it spinning. Carpentry is one of my favorite ways to express my creative flow. Here is a picture of a table I built for one of my employers as well as myself gloating over the largest table I ever built.
My employer was very excited when he found out I could do things like this.
When I built this a table like this would normally cost 25,000.00 to 35,000.00. I was able to provide it to my employer for materials + my pay.
I’ve put on a few pounds since then. In all the things I learned and did there was always that common thread of photography. After all I had to take plenty of pictures to show what I had been doing. Simply put when it comes to creativity I am your man, it is simply a part of who I am.
The rewards of
In the fall of 1999 I was diagnosed with a terminal illness. I lost both of my businesses as well as my home and most of what I owned. With the help of a few friends I moved to Dallas, I was hoping to get good medical help and hopefully get a few extra months out of life. The doctors here were better than I had hoped. Now two decades later I am still alive and kicking. When I first arrived in Dallas I had nothing and no way to support myself. I found a company that provided housing for persons living with HIV-AIDS that was looking for a porter, I thought that would be an easy job to get. I figured it would be a good opportunity for me to get some income to pay the bills. I pestered the nice lady who took my application until I had the job. I humbled myself and got busy picking up trash. After some months the human resources administrator called me into her office and said to me “Mr Trotter, I have one question for you, when I hired you into this company why did you undersell yourself?” I replied, if I had given you my resume would you have hired me? and she answered probably not. I said that was why. She laughed and told me the company has better things for me to do and she changed my pay scale and title. I have spent the last 19.5 years there producing, creating and making lives better through my work, it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Change
Recently there has been a change in the management of this corporation and I feel this is a good time to get back to the things I love so much. I now being in a position to get a good start have decided to return to something I have always loved, photography.