Carl Depolo

Depolo Productions
Soulsbyville, CA
209-532-9207

“Blink, got that one.” is how Carl Depolo staged the life around him since around the age of seven. As he often did riding up the California coast in the car on family vacations freezing the perfect shot in his imagination as he peered out the window at the Pacific Ocean. The blink of an eye became the snap of a camera at age eight as the Bay Area native started with a Kodak Brownie that rarely left his side. Most of his works are emotional and full of subtleties and complexities that keep calling the viewer into his work. The single common quality of his work is a “life sound” that is universal. That life, itself is important. To be heard, lived and celebrated.

Born in Oakland, CA in 1945, Carl grew up in neighboring San Leandro, CA the older of two sons of Croatian parents with classical music background in opera and symphony. He continued to be influenced by photography through his teenage years as well as music and sports. As he began studying percussion, he formed a local band as the drummer playing Beatles music which later became known as the Baytovens. Carl continued to take his then 35mm camera with him to various gigs which included opening for such acts as Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Association and Van Morrison’s Them. Getting to know show producers such as Bill Graham enabled Carl front stage entrance to many Bay Area concerts such as the Jimi Hendrix Oakland Coliseum concert in 1968, where some graceful moments of Jimi were captured on film. The Baytovens went on to become one of the highest paid bands in the Bay Area. The band was starting to record some original songs in professional sound studios in a short eighteen month period, when two of the four band members decided to leave the band causing it to break up for good.

Growing up in the Bay Area during the 1960s with a camera in hand led to a deeper understanding of the civil rights movement for Carl as he and some companions drove home through the Haight-Ashbury district one afternoon. The first riot in San Francisco history broke out while, from the sidelines, Carl clicked away on his camera of police brutality in action. After being beaten, himself as a bystander, and hauled away and stripped of his film and charged with inciting a riot, the imbalance causing the civil rights movement had become indelible. It is this emotion tied to the quality of the importance of life… to be heard, lived, and celebrated that comes through in Carl’s photography.

Combining all three talents of music, photography and sports Carl studied music theory under legendary jazz guitarist, Dave Creamer, who had played with Miles Davis and other jazz greats. Creamer worked with Carl on bass guitar and today he applies much of this knowledge to the keyboard writing and recording original music from his own studio. The two still share this mentor relationship.

The last fifteen years Carl has focused on professional sports photography ranging from the US Open in 2000 at the Olympic Club in San Francisco to children in Little League. Capturing emotion in action is what Carl is called upon and praised for time and again.

What sets Carl apart from other photographers is that he lives through his work. His ability to be interactive makes all the difference. He has been and still is actively involved in sports, writing and producing music and supporting civil rights issues. Well known civil rights photographer and friend Charles Moore says of his work, “beautiful, wonderful shots. We could do a trade.”

Carl explains, “I have a way of knowing when to shoot. I can really see a picture out of the big puzzle. I don’t know how that’s developed, whether that just started as a kid admiring beauty. A beautiful wave crashing on a rock. There’s not too many nine-year olds that go ‘Wow that would be a great picture’, but I used to. It’s gotten more intense. As the subject matter got more intense like a professional sporting event. It was exciting. You never knew what you were going to get. It was addictive for a long time…just to shoot and capture these things of beauty or things of importance.”

Not everyone can “blink” and get that one. Carl does.

Carl studied portrait and commercial photography at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara and is a member of the Photo Marketing Association (PMAI).

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