WHILE walking home from work in 1989, Lloyde Burke saw a dog rummaging through a trash can and spotted a Kodak camera among the refuse. He took up the device and ran to the nearest film store.

Then a landscaper, Burke launched his photography business with that camera and, more than 30 years later, he continues to make a living by capturing precious moments in time at various events and at Emancipation Park in Kingston.

“From when I was about seven years old, I love camera things. I used to have my View-Master, and every time I slide it and click it, I see a different picture, so the View-Master just reminds me of a camera…I wanted a camera, but I couldn’t afford to buy one,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

He shared that the same day he found the camera in the trash, he went to a supermarket in Half-Way-Tree to buy film and capture pictures of the flowers he nurtured as a landscaper.

“I turned to Hope Gardens with it and saw a guy have a Polaroid. He said to me that his wife [brought] it [for him] from foreign [overseas] but he didn’t have any use for it, so him selling [it to] me for $700 and I make use of it,” he recalled laughing.

A prime example of ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’, Burke said the cameras allowed him to start his business, Joe Flex Photo Service.

Between 1989 and 2002, he walked around the lush landscape of Hope Gardens in St Andrew, capturing moments for others who were there to bond with their family members or friends. When Emancipation Park opened to the public in 2002, he moved to that location.

“I used to come here [Emancipation Park] and if I see you and you want a picture, I take you, and I go to somebody [else and take their picture]…I couldn’t even wait for the 36 [film] roll to be done, I run to cut it at my expense. Me nah charge you, but me just wah fi see what it look like,” he told the Sunday Observer smiling.

“I can remember when I got my first wedding [shoot], I did not spend the money [I was paid] until I [saw] what the quality was like, and I continued to not spend the money until I see the quality,” he shared, noting that he takes great pride in his work.

In his 36 years in the business, Burke shared that he has captured photographs for many prominent Jamaicans, including entertainers Beenie Man, Peter Tosh, and Barrington Irving, a Jamaica-born American pilot who previously held the record for the youngest person to pilot a plane around the world solo — a feat he accomplished in 2007. Burke has also captured images at graduations and other events.

“I think I’m doing some good work. I remember I took some pictures for a man right here [at Emancipation Park]…He worked over at National Baking Company, and he came back to me and said, ‘You know you guys doing a very good job. You know Facebook put it up as the number one picture for two years?” he recalled, noting that, to date, that is one of his most cherished moments.

However, he disclosed that his favourite photograph is one that was captured in the spur of the moment.

“I remember one day I was sitting on that bench [in the park], and when I looked I saw a [swarm] of bees a come and some people were [also] coming and they go right through the [swarm] of bees and I catch it…that was a joke to see them going through the [swarm] of bees,” he laughed.

Burke shared that, over the years, many photographers who once came to the park have left. Despite having a profitable photography business, he shared that he could not find it within himself to leave Emancipation Park.

“Since the phone [has a camera], everybody gone leave me alone a hold the post, but I decide say me nah run, me a stay…Somebody got to be here and people ago come and want passport size pictures or for weddings, and sometimes when them come [they don’t have any] cameraman…so I get the work,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Burke also noted that after a video of him at the park went viral on social media recently, people have come to seek his services and he is grateful.

While his career choice was once scrutinised by his family, he said that he is happy he pursued his dream.

“Even my sister, she used to tell me, ‘Gwan go look work’, more than one of them used to tell me, ‘Gwan go look work. Nobody nuh take pictures’, so I say to them, ‘No, anything you a do, you got to make it work’, and believe me, up to today, if they want something is me them have to come to, not me [go] to them,” he said laughing.

“I want to tell people, don’t let anybody stifle your dreams. You know what you want, you know your dreams more than anybody else. If I did follow my sister then probably I wouldn’t be what I am. You know what you want, nobody know better than you. Me a try tell the young youth them, there is always something you can do,” Burke encouraged.