Our Faculty

Keith Rizzo

Adjunct Faculty

My career as a photographer began much earlier than I thought while my father took me to the drag races in San Antonio, Texas in the sweltering summers of the early eighties. My mother gave me her little Kodak 126 format camera to take pictures at the races with.

It wasn’t until I was in high school in the mid eighties that I took my first photography class and formally began a fulfilling and adventurous life as a photographer. I began shooting fashion images immediately of all the hotties I went to school with to build a portfolio to acquire new clients. I enjoyed success locally until I decided it was time for a change in 1996 and looked to motor racing as my next calling in life.

Never in my life had my calling been so clear. Motor sport photography is where I belong. I love the atmosphere, sights, and sounds that envelop and overwhelm your senses while shooting trackside as the cars rocket past mere inches away in many circumstances. The one thing that keeps me wanting to come back time after time to shoot is the simple purity of essence that motor racing represents for me.

There is only one purpose and that is to be the very best at what you do. Roger Penske said, “In motor racing, they don’t wait for you.” I hold that thought dear when I suit up to go cover another session trackside or in pit lane.

It is this philosophy I bring with me into my class sessions at ACC. We are here to create professional photographers out of those who seek this life.

I have been teaching photography for ACC since 1993 in the adult continuing education department and joined the adjunct faculty in 2000. It has been more than rewarding teaching photography here and participating in the transformation into digital imaging in this department for the past 18 months.

I continue to look forward to meeting new people and making a unique contribution in their experience with our photography department.

My Creed: In A World Of Compromise… Some Don’t.

Favorite Quote: Steve McQueen- “Racing is life! Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.”