User:CurtisNeeley

CurtisNeeley is the pseudonym Curtis J. Neeley Jr. uses on the Internet. Very early, photography made an impact on CurtisNeeley's life. his dad worked for Eastman Kodak. The company Christmas party once included a multi-projector travel slide show. Growing up in the small town of Batesville, Arkansas - it was amazing to see such well executed images from all around the world. It was then that Curtis recognized the power of visual communications and he wanted to harness that power.

Curtis read everything about photography he could get his hands on. He soon realized photography is expensive, and everyone wants to do it. The realist - Curtis turned to a 'normal' profession and went to school to become a Mechanical Engineer. He worked at TRW Vehicle Safety Systems - the world's largest manufacturer of seatbelt systems - and soon learned mechanical engineering was not for him.

The USMC changes you. If you have not been there - Curtis can't describe it for you. If you have - there is no need to. While stationed in Okinawa, Japan, He returned to his first love - got his first 'good' camera, and probably financed a Fuji film plant learning the ropes. Curtis Neeley also enrolled in a photography course. He learned and applied a lot that year. By the end of the year, he was shooting cover assignments for "Okinawa Today", contributing to "Stars and Stripes", as well as working as a staff photographer on the USO "Exploring Okinawa" tour guide. He spent a lot of time behind the camera that year, made a lot of mistakes, and a lot of progress.

Returning to the U.S. - it took several years working odd jobs before he got the chance to again work as a commercial photographer. Along the way he shot sports and news for the "NW Arkansas Times" and honed knowledge of equipment and processing at a commercial photo lab. He now has his own commercial studio equipment but doesn't shoot nearly the amount of mass-market commercial material as he did in the past. CurtisNeeley recently had a major automobile wreck. After years in recovery he is trying to work toward being an art photographer first and a commercial photographer second.

After his car wreck, Curtis was in a coma for six weeks and then his spouse did a DNR order. Doctors figured he would have the mind of a toddler at best because of his traumatic brain injury (TBI). Receiving a severe TBI and having a stroke during surgery to repair his descending aorta left CurtisNeeley as a paraplegic with full use of one arm. Due to his TBI CurtisNeeley was no longer able to remember most of his life prior to his accident. Prior to his car accident CurtisNeeley shot "art nude" photography for over a decade.