Nathan Lucas: Shooting Portland

“Photography is a different kind of art,” Nathan Lucas said after introducing himself to his Digital Photography class on the first day of school. “Unlike painting where you add in what you want, you are choosing what to exclude from your frame. You have to choose carefully because you don’t want to leave something important out.”

Lucas is of average height. He has short hair, glasses and a constant smile on his face. When you look at him, nothing stands out as extraordinary, but what he creates when he looks through the lens of his camera is truly astonishing.

Lucas picked up his first camera in middle school. He hit the shutter release, letting light flood in, exposing his first roll of film. Ever since then, his life has been dedicated to photography.

“My brother started taking pictures, and I liked looking at what he was doing,” Lucas said. “One year, my parents got us both cameras for Christmas and since then I was hooked.”

Photography quickly became Lucas’ passion. Still in high school, Lucas decided to start a career as a photojournalist. He saved all his money and purchased a personal darkroom. He was now able to print pictures whenever he pleased.

“I sort of started stringing for a couple of weekly newspapers,” Lucas said. “I just kept photographing and eventually got a job as a photojournalist.”

After landing a position as a news photographer, he worked at two weekly newspapers for four years until he decided that he was done with photojournalism.

“After a couple years of doing that, I realized that I did not want to document people’s tragedies,” Lucas said. “I decided I wanted to go into photography as an art form.”

Shortly after ending his career as a news photographer, he enrolled at The University of Oregon where he earned both a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) and a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.). Since getting his M.F.A., Lucas has taught at the Arts and Communication school in Beaverton as well as his current job, a Digital Art and photography teacher at the Northwest Academy.

“Teaching is my favorite part of my photography career; has been since I started,” Lucas said.

Lucas has been employed at the Northwest Academy for 13 years where he started in IT before working his way towards teaching Digital Art and Digital Photography.

“For the first couple of years he was an IT person.” David Wagstaff, Dean of Students, said. “Eventually we he started teaching a couple classes. He did so well, and was a popular teacher, that we got a new IT guy so Nathan could move over to teaching.”

He is well liked by both the students and the faculty at the Northwest Academy.

“Nathan is a great teacher, and an extremely talented photographer,” Pearce Hyatt, a freshman in Lucas’ Digital Photography class, said.

Outside of teaching at the Northwest Academy, Lucas’s life consists of normal activities: reading, spending time with his son and wife and of course going out to taking pictures.

Another way to fill his free time with photography is being a member of the Portland Grid Project. The Portland Grid is a group of 17 photographers who go out each month to shot a certain section of Portland. The group took a AAA map of Portland and cut it up into smaller sections. Each month a section is randomly chosen for all of the photographers to go out and shoot.

“I first heard about the Portland Grid Project probably close to around when it started,” Lucas said. “I saw an exhibit down in old town, and that’s when I started getting interested. Eventually, I decided I wanted to join.”

Soon after Lucas decided that he wanted to join the project, he discovered that three photographers were stepping down after 19 years.

“I got three people to recommend me, and after that, I got asked to join,” Lucas said.

Since joining the Grid Project, Lucas goes out to shoot no less than once a week, often more depending on his schedule. Occasionally his wife, Karen Morgan, goes out on shoots with Lucas.

“She goes with me sometimes,” Lucas said. “She’ll bring her camera, but she doesn’t photograph like I photograph. She might take 10 or 15 pictures and I will have taken a few hundred by then.”

Lucas has been taking pictures for almost all his life. He hopes to keep shooting for the rest of it too.

“It’s something I like doing,” Lucas said. “I am drawn to taking photographs. Even when I think I have stopped, I am still taking photographs.”