Doctor or Photographer? The Life-Changing Choice I Faced in 1997

My father was born and raised in Santiago de Chile to German/Jewish parents. My grandparents fled WWII in 1939 and started a new life in Chile. In 1997, I graduated from Tulane University, in New Orleans.  Not anxious to jump right into medical school, I decided to take a year off to explore my family roots. It was actually during this year that I really started to develop my skills as a photographer.

I spent the year snowboarding in the Andes, teaching English in the Atacama Desert, and getting to know my extended family- all the while with my antique Zeiss Ikon camera on my shoulder.  I started training as a volunteer fireman, was offered a job to work in a fashion magazine and even became a runway model. At this time, I really felt that my life was starting to take on a new direction- with photography firmly in the driver’s seat. During this transition year I was applying to medical schools, but had been rejected to all of them EXCEPT my first choice – Ponce School of Medicine- in Puerto Rico. My hopes were low and I had become excited to lead a new life in Chile. Then, out of the blue, an acceptance letter came to disturb these plans… It was a very tough decision, one of the hardest I have ever had to make. Do I stay or do I go?

What it finally boiled down to was the thought “You can be a doctor and a photographer, but you can’t be a photographer and a doctor”- so I packed my bags, said my tearful goodbyes and left for Puerto Rico.