Antoni Meyer: Photographing America

Monday morning the bell rings. Quick get dressed and go to breakfast. Off to class for the day, then lunch. After he has to run back to the boarding house and then his sports practice after school. He walks to dinner then back to the boarding house. Then there’s a two-hour window devoted to homework. Lights out. The next morning it starts all over again. Until Friday, then he gets to go home to his family.

Senior Antoni Meyer had a schooling experience unlike any other student at Conifer. When he was thirteen instead of going to the regular high school like most kids in his hometown of Melkbosstrand, South Africa, he went to the boarding school.

“My dad got transferred for work and we had a choice between San Francisco, Austin, and here,” Meyer said.

This isn’t the first time Meyer and his family have moved overseas either. When Meyer was four he moved to California and lived in the suburb of Yucaipa near Los Angeles for three years, then moved back to South Africa.

“I miss the sea because I miss going bodyboarding, swimming, walking on the beach and Sea Rescue,” Meyer said.

Before moving to the United States for the second time, Meyer was part of a volunteer program similar to the U.S Coast Guard called Sea Rescue. Sea Rescue is similar to the emergency response side of the Coast Guard. Meyer’s family got him started in the program, and his dad had done it for nineteen years.

“It taught me to panic slowly. If you’re in a really bad situation and everything is going south you have to keep your head cool and think about the situation and try to resolve it and still save people’s lives because other people count on you,” Meyer said.

There are over 1000 volunteers throughout South Africa and over thirty stations. A volunteer and their crew would be on call for a week and they would rotate between crews.

“I started messing around with the cameras and watched a few youtube tutorials and decided I wanted to take pictures of those guys,” Meyer said.

Meyer is a freelance photographer and sometimes photographs for the student publications such as the Lobo Legend and the Canis Lupus yearbook. Meyer got his first camera last year and has been photographing ever since.

“ I just want to take good pictures and maybe have a mini business with it,” Meyer said. Meyer plans to study Aerospace engineering and has been accepted Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.