As a lad, Brooks Ayola had an affinity for 'snapshots'. As a matter of fact, some of his early Instamatic photos show an early grasp for composition and timing that still holds true today. Later, as a progressive high school student involved in competitive swimming and water polo, he devoured the study of photography aided by his highly coveted Nikon FM. He honed his composition and processing basics in a coed's home darkroom, in pursuit of professionalism, of course.
Brooks' path of knowledge led him through various trades in order to finance his desire for photographing. He worked in finish cabinetry, photo retail, global shipping and as a beach lifeguard. His extensive and eclectic knowledge of music and outgoing personality even landed him a short stint in radio broadcasting. When he purchased his first medium format camera, a Mamiya RB67, he tried to shoot some weddings, but gave it up in pursuit of less stressful ventures. "I'd rather have the CEO of a major corporation waiting to see my film than a first time bride."
A crucial part of his photo education was assisting respected commercial photographers in Southern California and Arizona. Learning all of the technical aspects of commercial photography, he discovered he had a valuable creative contribution to make to the design industry.
The inevitable decision soon came to venture out on his own and expose the world to his ideal of how images could be created. Through this metamorphosis he has faithfully served clients such as: The American Heart Association, Arcona, Aware Products, Balance Snowboards, Belltech Sport Trucks, Bosley Healthy Hair, Controversy Magazine, Cybermedia Software, Dayspa Magazine, Dermanew, Detour, Ecoly Hair Care, Giovanni Hair Care, Hayashi Systems, JBL Pro Audio, Launchpad Magazine, LTM Motion Picture Lighting, Metropolis, Nailpro Magazine, Pork Pie Drums, Staedtler Writing Instruments, Suspension Techniques, Tamrac Camera Carrying Systems, Tecnica, Universal Electronics and Yamaha Motor Corporation.
In Brooks' compulsion to reach the top of his industry, his path of study has also lead him to augmenting his imagery and preparing it for print and the web. He is an accomplished digital artist, a renegade web creator and consultant, and a natural at graphic design. The possession of these qualities led to a rather ambitious project for Controversy Magazine. Brooks not only designed the magazine's logo and corporate identity, but also acted as photo editor, art director and graphic designer for their premier national issue and subsequent issues. Along with these duties, his photographs graced over 60 pages of the first two issues including product, fashion and celebrity portraits. Because of these start to finish skills, he is a "Triple Threat" when it comes to design. Brooks' images are exciting in their movement, rich in color, invitingly lit and consciously detailed, but he still cherishes the 'happy accident' most. "More than once the whole direction of a shoot has changed after seeing a mistake on the first Polaroid that we loved." Brooks lives in Chatsworth, California with his wife Marisa and their daughter Lily.
