We recently had the chance to connect with Manuel Ceniceros and have shared our conversation below.
Manuel, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
Photography is the path that I’m wondering down. I don’t question where it’s going. Some days I’m with artists in their creative spaces, other days I’m walking the streets or the shoreline, looking for light, shadow, and texture. Black and white slows me down and shows me what matters.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Manuel Ceniceros. I’m a 66-year-old Chicano photographer who grew up in San Diego, with over 45 years behind the camera. Over the years I’ve worked as a photojournalist and fashion photographer, and I’ve also produced and directed television shows and commercials.
Today, my focus is solely on photography—specifically film photography. I work exclusively in black and white to strip away surface reality and get closer to what remains. I’m drawn to the beauty and quiet strength of the ordinary.
I process my own film at home and do my own scanning. Working with film slows me down and forces me to think about light, timing, and intention. I don’t consider myself a street photographer as much as a wandering photographer—one who observes, explores, and lets the work lead the way. Fine art feels like the closest description of what I do.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Before photography entered my life full time, I was a physicist and mathematician. In my third year of college, I walked into a math final and suddenly everything was gone. Every formula gone. All I could do was write my name on the test and walk out.
It was as if the world had decided I wasn’t meant to continue down that path. So I turned, and photography found me.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
If I’m being honest, I think about giving up every other day. Art is hard. Fine art photography is hard. I don’t want to make pictures of puppies or sunsets just to feel successful.
Some mornings I wake up and don’t know if I can still make photographs at all. That fear has been with me since college—that one day I’ll wake up and the thing I love most will be gone, the way it once disappeared before.
So yes, I think about quitting often. But quitting would be too easy. Instead, I make myself go out and take pictures anyway. Even on the days I don’t believe in them. Especially on those days.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
There’s no separation between the public me and the private me. I show up as I am, because I don’t know how to be anything else. Some people connect with that. Some don’t.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
When I’m gone, I hope people remember me as a dreamer, a smart-ass, an artist, and a giver. As someone who loved to laugh—and loved making others laugh. As a photographer whose images helped people see the beauty and symmetry around them, and notice what they passed by every day without ever really seeing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mcvisualart.com
- Instagram: @mc_visual_art
Image Credits
All credits a mine
