Zone 3 Photography by Manuel Palacios
I am Manuel Palacios, a photographer based in New York’s Mohawk Valley. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, and raised in the coastal town of La Guaira, my early life was filled with baseball, surfing, and endless curiosity fueled by books and encyclopedias that introduced me to photography's profound power through the works of Per Bak Jensen, Michael Kenna, Arnold Newman, and Ansel Adams.
Initially drawn to music as my creative outlet, my passion for nature and science eventually steered my journey toward photography, not just as a way to document places but as a deeply personal means of self expression and philosophical exploration. After pursuing advanced studies in Chemistry and relocating to the United States for doctoral and postdoctoral research, my career brought me close to the Adirondacks, where my relationship with landscape photography truly began.
Photography entered my life for one simple reason: my daughter was about to be born. I bought a DSLR to capture her first breaths, her first smiles, her every discovery. For years she filled my viewfinder until the day she asked me to turn the camera elsewhere. Her gentle request sent me outside in search of quiet subjects that would not ask to see the pictures afterward. Landscapes became my partners in conversation, and with them I began to explore photography as a language of questions rather than answers.
Astrophotography came first, a technical challenge I loved for its metaphor of bringing clarity to darkness. That curiosity soon expanded to abstraction and representation, to wondering how a photograph can reveal more than it records. From misty Adirondack dawns to the deserts of the Southwest and the sea cliffs of Iceland and Ireland, I have learned that every scene is an invitation to reflect on why humans make art at all.
Today my work centers on the Adirondack Park, especially the quiet corners beyond the postcards. I aim to create images that slow the viewer down, provoke thought, and hint at the conversations we hold with ourselves when words fall short. Photography is my way of thinking out loud, a bridge between the logic of a scientist and the instinct of an artist. If a picture resonates, I hope it is because it carries a trace of that dialogue and invites you to join it.
