In 1963, before leaving for an auto trip across the US from Massachusetts to California, Nick Decarlo was handed his first camera. He was 14 years old. This single event let to two things; a life with a camera and the urge to travel, a course that continues to this day. By the age of nineteen, he had his own business photographing weddings with a 2 1/4 Yashica Mat twin-lens reflex camera. After a tour of duty with the US Marine Corps he bought an 8”x10” camera an set out to emulate the likes of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards and Sonya Noskowiak from the f.64 group, photographing black and white landscapes, still life, nudes and abstract form. But this wasn’t enough. He developed a passion for the 19th century photographic processes; Platinum and Palladium printing and Gum Dichromate printing. Art had now become his focus. For the next 10 years everywhere that Nick went the 8x10 was sure to follow.
During this period, while living in Vermont, he was awarded two National Endowment Art grants through the Vermont Council on the Arts. With the revenue from the first National Endowment award, Nick traveled to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia where he photographed the fishermen and villages, documenting the lifestyle of these hardy individuals. A collection, in Platinum, of that work lies in the archives of the New Orleans Museum of Fine Art. The second National Endowment award was bestowed for his work in Gum Dichromate after developing a procedure for fabricating full color images from black and white negatives. In addition to exhibiting this work, he traveled to various parts of the US lecturing in Universities and teaching the 19th century photographic processes that he had become famous for. While living in Washington, D.C., he became professor of photography at the Smithsonian Institute teaching master black and white printing, Zone System theory and Platinum printing.
In 1978, the Robert Flaherty Foundation asked Nick if he would participate in the conservation of the still negatives and photographs taken by Robert Flaherty during the time he was making his documentary films. As assistant director of the project he gathered all the relevant material and then re-photographed all the salvageable material while conserving the original negatives and prints. He then created a museum-quality exhibition consisting of more than 100 photographs that toured the US.
In 1988, he started a commercial photography business in Washington D.C., setting aside the art aspect of photography. Architecture, professional sports and tabletop photography consumed all his time. In 1995, setting aside photography all together, he bought a sailboat and headed south to the Caribbean Ocean and parts of South America making a life as a live-aboard sailor. More travel, more experiences, and more life.
The digital world rekindled his interest and spirit in photography. The ease of storing and processing imagery made sense while living on a sailboat, so he bought his first 1.3 mega pixel camera. No more darkrooms, or negatives to develop. As the quality in cameras rose and the possibilities of producing exhibition caliber prints followed, he knew he would need a bigger sailboat. He chose Spain instead. His first trip to Spain in 2001 set the wheels in motion and his long-standing dream of living in Europe became a reality. Nick now lives in a small village on the east coast of Spain, still near the ocean, and can be found walking the beaches, the villages, and the cities of Spain with his digital camera in hand.
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