Biography

Maria Terezinha Vaz came to the United States from her native country Brazil in 1996, after acquiring a Bachelor of Arts degree, and teaching high school science in São Paulo. Her feeling for Santa Cruz, California, was one of love at first sight. In 1999, she enrolled in photography class at Cabrillo College. What she began to learn changed her life, restoring the shape, and sense of purpose of it.

Knowing little about the extent of photographic history, her first challenge was to choose a photographer about whom to give an oral presentation. A print in her physical therapist's office caught her attention; therefore she wrote down the photographer's name and brought it to class. With her instructor's encouragement she went to the library to do her research. It was there at the Cabrillo College Library that the work of Ansel Adams came into her life.

Maria Terezinha continued her studies and learned later about Ansel Adams' techniques, which made her appreciate his work even more. The dedicated and passionate student made photography her way of life. Her goal is to be the female side of Ansel Adams because she found that she had shared many similar ideas and feelings towards nature and people as he did. In addition to this passion for the world of beauty in shadows and highlights captured on photographs of clouds, rocks, trees and all that compose nature, Maria Terezinha is motivated to develop her skills as a photographer and to master Ansel Adams' Zone System.

Through photography, Maria Terezinha Vaz integrates other passions, some of them lifelong. Trains, train tracks, the patterns and geometry of the rails and the machinery, have always held a fascination for her. She highly values historical and cultural preservation such as The Mayan Land in Mexico, especially the sacred city of Chichen Itza. Preservation of the natural environment is also of great importance to her. In recent years she has become a world traveler. All of these are important in life as a whole and also have value as subjects for photographic images. Maria Terezinha's works are skilled compositions of light, form, and shadows creating a statement of what are true value, sharing her world vision of images and feelings.

-- Kitty Miller, Aptos, CA 2003