Q&A: Manny Rodriguez

Many of the pretty pictures in advertising for Sam’s, Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney are made in a 15,000-square-foot warehouse in the design district. This is the headquarters for Manny Rodriguez, who is one of the top commercial photographers in Dallas. Rodriguez was born in Cuba, raised in Miami and moved to Dallas in ’94. He and his wife, Vanessa Semifero, have lived near Kidd Springs Park for 10 years. Rodriguez, who turned pro as a teenager, specializes in food photography and home fashions. He recently sat down with us to talk about life, photography and his plans for an Oak Cliff studio.

How did you get into photography?

I bought my first camera, a Canon FTB, for $379. It was a 50-mm with F/1.2 lens, case and three rolls of Kodak film with processing. I was 18, and I had literally never taken a picture before. I read the manual and just fell in love with the idea of processing and printing and all that. Then I got my first assistant job at 19. They called me in on a Saturday, after waiting for three months. My first day on the job was Sunday, and I worked for 21 days straight. I knew that’s what I wanted to do right out of high school. I remember a Sunday morning taking a picture of downtown Miami, and I said to myself, “I have to make this a career.”

So you’re self-taught?

Well, I took a lot of workshops. I took a workshop in Winona, Ind., on commercial photography. And reading the entire 21-volume Kodak encyclopedia people ignore the manual, but they’re a course in photography. If you buy a camera and read the manual, you will learn a lot about photography.

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