Everyone Has A Story

Terry Proveda points to a photograph of piled skulls and bones he took in the Parisian catacombs.

"I love this. Someone is going to look at it and go, 'Whoa, that's a pile of bones!' You don't have to read into it - you don't. You can just look at it and be like, this is a nice picture. You don't have to read into it."

He pauses and smiles. "You can."

The photo is just one of hundreds the Charleswood native took on a trip across Europe in 2010. For three months, Proveda lived out of a duffel bag, travelling through Sweden, Denmark, France and a number of other countries. He says his search for spectacular images coincided with a childhood goal.

"I always wanted to go to France and take a picture of the Eiffel Tower. I think it was a symbol for me," he says. "I'm the first one of my immediate family to go overseas."

"Going there meant being on the other side of the world."

Capturing the experience in photos was natural for Proveda; he says he can't remember not having a camera. Through the cheap, disposable versions he got as a child to the point-and-shoot model he won at graduation, Proveda has slowly built his confidence as a photographer. A few years ago, he invested in a professional SLR camera.

"A nice big one - you know what I mean," he laughs.

His European pictures cover a variety of subjects. A riot in Greece. A friend's porch in Montpellier. A colourfully painted Italian fishing village at sunset - a picture Proveda camped a day on the side of a cliff to capture.

"I wanted stunning images. I don't want to go out and just take the same stupid photo that everyone else has taken... You want to tell a story, but there are also times for just a cool picture."

His European trip over, Proveda had difficulty finding inspiration closer to home. He recently accepted an internship at Red River College's student newspaper as photo editor - a position he hopes stimulates his creativity.

"I'd like to get in there and get to the news... Hopefully I can live up to the hype."