An engaged, passionate life

BASYA LAYE

For many of us, a midlife career change is something to fear or, at the very least, something about which to feel suspicious. But for engineer and, now, award-winning photographer Sharon Tenenbaum, a shift in life-plan was inspired happenstance.

“It wasn’t an overnight thing. Three years ago it started, I was wasn’t enjoying what I was doing, I didn’t find fulfilment, I didn’t feel that it was reflecting who I am,” she explained. “I wasn’t the same person anymore who had decided to become an engineer.” The choice to make a break didn’t come easily.

“Engineering comes naturally to me, but when I was in Israel and done with the army and I had to decide what career to choose, I thought of going into the arts and I went to put together a portfolio and, at the time, I was intimidated by having to be creative on a daily basis. I felt I had other talents that were out there and I decided to choose something more safe and secure, a proper education, you know, something your parents would be proud of, that gives you a stable income. So I went into engineering.”

Tenenbaum found success in her field and though she was trained in structural engineering in Israel, when she came to Canada, she began working in environmental engineering. In an interview with the Independent, Tenenbaum admitted that, by 2007, she was far from happy with the daily grind and had discovered her passion for photography on a life-altering trip to the Far East.

“Three years ago, when I was in a rut, I thought, I need to take a break from life and go traveling. I was learning a lot of eastern traditions and religions and I wanted to go see and taste it firsthand. And then my dad gave me a camera for the trip, and throughout the trip I fell in love with photography. I saw how I was just completely consumed by looking at the world through the camera and observing and noticing,” she recalled.

The idea of being fully engaged with life was seductive and Tenenbaum found herself more and more drawn to life behind the camera. “I just saw how much I was engaged with what I was doing. I was 100 percent enjoying what I was doing when I was taking photos. It’s something that I’ve never experienced before in my life. Actually not noticing time going by or not being hungry, being completely in the moment of doing something and being so driven by perfection, to get the perfect shot and spending hours waiting for the sunrise or sunset.”

When she returned from traveling, Tenenbaum was certain that something had to change. “I was on the verge of ready to go work at Starbucks.... At the time, engineering was booming, so I knew that I could get a job in a day, but then when I gave my boss my final notice, he came to me with the offer of work from home. He said, ‘Do what you do in the office, but from home. We can do this. We can make it happen. If it means just coming to the office just for a meeting, let’s take it from there.’”

Deciding to take him up on his offer made sense and Tenenbaum’s advice to anyone looking to move from one career to another is clear: “I manage to supplement my income. That is what I’d recommend to anyone who decides to follow their dream is don’t leave your day job.... I was working 20 hours a week at the time. It was enough to keep me paying the bills and leaving me half the time for my photography, to put together a foundation.”

Tenenbaum used the word “prepared” several times when asked to describe her creative process. “There’s this really nice quote by Louis Pasteur where he says, ‘Chance favors the prepared mind.’ You have to do half the work, you have to at least show up. You have to be there for things to happen. It means going to the place where you want to go, but knowing that you can’t go there at midday when the sun is straight up in the sky – you have to wait for the golden hour.... Some things will happen when they happen as they happen, like the photo that was in National Geographic, that was midday but, again, I was prepared for something to happen. I was literally stalking that area waiting to catch four monks crossing the road, like in the Abbey Road [Beatles] album because there were monks all over the place and the crosswalk and I was ready with the camera. But then [a monk’s robe got caught on a fence] and I caught it. I was prepared for something to happen.”

Tenenbaum seems to have transferred her engineering eye to the natural world and her photographs can look like a study of the structural aspects of nature. Again, the idea of preparation is key.

“I tried not to go to a location with the thought in my mind of what I’m going to be taking. When I went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge area, in my mind, going there, I was actually planning on getting the treetop adventure thing and not so much the bridge.

“I thought all the architectural angles of that would make a really nice photo. But then when I got there, standing on the bridge, someone was tapping me on my shoulder saying, ‘Move the camera a bit.’... You need let go of any preconceived notions that you have and be in the moment, let it flow. And that is kind of my work process.”

While it was her father who encouraged her interest in photography when he gave her the point and shoot for her Asia trip, Tenenbaum is self-taught.

“I used to fiddle around with a camera 20 years ago, with a regular camera.... It’s funny, when I was traveling in India, I met a photographer, one of Europe’s best photographers, and we spent the day together. I showed him my photos and he puts his hand on my shoulder and, with a friendly look, he says to me, ‘Don’t leave your day job.’ I’ll never forget that.... The other thing he said to me was ‘Learn from the best. Learn and study the photographers you admire, observe their work and study from that.’”

Next on the horizon is a trip back home, to Israel, and this time, she’ll be there as a photographer. “I’ve been living in Canada for eight years and I haven’t been back in seven years. So, it’s going to be quite an experience for me to see Israel as a photographer now. It’s hard, it’s one of the most photogenic countries in the world, so many things to photograph there.”

Tenenbaum also does maternity and family portraits. These photographs are warm and sensual and it’s apparent that she enjoys her time with her subjects.

“I would not do anything today, in photography, that I do not enjoy doing.... I think you can’t be good at something unless you enjoy doing it. You can maybe do it, but you won’t be great. I think that’s what distinguishes between someone who’s great at something and someone who is just good at something. It’s the passion you have for what you do.”

To view Sharon Tenenbaum’s work or purchase her newly published book of photographs, Vancouver – Like No Other (Vibrant Publishing, 2009), visit sharontenenbaum.com.

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