Young Man With A Camera

Artists are born, certainly, but they also have to be made in some ways. Robert Kulisek, the 19-year-old son of Dorothy and Bobby Kulisek, is the staff photographer at the Sun, and a near-genius with a camera, possessing one of the best natural eyes this writer has seen in over 45 years in the media.

Rob, as he is also known, is currently studying in the medical field at New York Institute of Technology’s College of Medicine on Long Island after graduating in 2008 from St. Augustine Prep. He does much of the Sun’s picture-taking when he is home from school and shoots full-time in the summer. When Rob isn’t available, Dorothy picks up her camera and isn’t a bad photographer in her own right.

Rob owes his immersion in the photographic arts to both his dad, Bobby Kulisek, and Jim Ernest. Bobby was out selling ads in the infancy of the paper and also taking pictures with a little Fuji point-and-shoot and stopped in at the Eckerd’s – now Rite- Aid – on Atlantic Avenue in Wildwood to find out from Ernest how to really work the camera.

Dorothy picks up the story: “Jim to this day shakes his head in amazement that this man came in and casually said, ‘Oh, my wife and I are starting a newspaper and I don’t know how to use this camera.’” She laughs at the memory, and then goes on: “And then Bobby saw how knowledgeable Jim was about photography and asked him if he would give Robert lessons and he came over and trained Robert on a film camera. They did lessons together that year, talking about F-stops and shutter speeds and all that technical stuff and he really got Robert started with the basics of photography.

“Then Robert started to do his Surf Log in the paper and we put out money for better camera equipment for him and even got an underwater housing made for his camera. He did really beautiful surfing shots in the water and just really blossomed as a photographer. He loves it. He has an artists’ eye. Everyone just loves his work. He has also become quite a writer since he started working for the paper when he was in the eighth grade. His first college semester’s writing grade was a 97, the highest in the class!”

To experience Robert Kulisek’s work, go to his website at www.robkulisek.com and check out his photos, his Sun Radio, and his blog. The dude definitely has it!