Reflections of a Ballerina Photograph

Reuben Esteban Reynoso was born in East L.A. and raised in the lower-income community of Baldwin Park. He first discovered his love of photography at the age of 10 when he came across Richard Avedon's "In the American West" in his local library, where he would go to escape anytime he could. At 13yo, he "borrowed" a camera, which he found while snooping through his absent father's belongings. Realizing there was still film in the camera, he walked around his neighborhood snapping photos of his friends and neighbors. Though he got reprimanded by his mom for taking something that didn't belong to him, she surprised him days later with the developed photos, which she had developed for him by saving what she could. Reuben's love for photography took off from there, and any money he made was spent on film and developing of it. Though he was fortunate to have photography classes offered in high school, Reuben is mainly self-taught; mostly through books he found in public libraries, and later the internet. When he joined the Navy, he was able to combine his love of photography and the underwater world. He discovered being underwater gave him the same sense of safety and peace that the library had as a kid. It took him out of the streets, and into a new world, one that he was eager to share with the rest of the world. In 2009, Reuben began photographing dancers underwater, believing that water was the perfect medium for dancers; it allows a dancer to perform moves that would be impossible while chained down to earthly gravity. Reuben believes the photographs he's created alongside dancers and performers convey the true peace and freedom that society should be capable of. "Working with dancers on developing flowing movement and the ability to achieve poses, shapes and movements in the water that wouldn't be possible on land is what really inspires me."