When Ibarionex Perello first discovered photography at 10, the connection was instantaneous and binding. His lifelong passion has taken him everywhere, from the vibrant streets of Los Angeles to The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens’ extensive archives.

As a young boy living in South Los Angeles — just a few miles south of the University of Southern California and the Coliseum — Perello attended the Boys and Girls Club of Hollywood. In a fateful turn of events, his counselor took up the task of renovating the club’s abandoned darkroom, bringing in two freelance photojournalists to teach the kids how to process film.

“The moment I saw that print revealed in the developing tray, it was over. It’s all I wanted to do,” Perello said. “I’ve always been fascinated by photography and making pictures — pretty much obsessed exclusively with that all my life.”

While studying English Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, Perello joined the school’s newspaper, writing and taking pictures.

“It was a pivotal moment,” he explained. “It was the first time I discovered I was good at something.

“At that point, I knew that there was a viable way of making a career of doing something that I loved to do. I’ve never been a great planner, but I’ve been very blessed that my whole life has revolved around photography because I can’t imagine what it would be like if it didn’t.”

After graduating, he embarked on a varied career. Initially working at Nikon as a technical representative, he later transitioned to magazine editing for publications like Outdoor Photographer, Digital Photo Pro and Digital Photo Magazine. His passion for photography led him to author half a dozen books on the subject and teach workshops around the world. He has also taught at the Los Angeles Center of Photography and Artcenter College of Design.

Three years ago, he began his current role as a special projects photographer at The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens.

“At the time, magazine work was drying up,” Perello said. “It was a good time for me to do something different.”

Perello is one of four photographers tasked with documenting The Huntington’s archive, which includes art, books and historical ephemera. Some of the archive’s more notable artifacts include two copies of the Gutenberg Bible and letters from past presidents like Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

Perello’s work plays a crucial role in preserving and making significant historical documents accessible to researchers worldwide. For example, over the past six months, his main task has been digitizing science fiction writer and Pasadena native Octavia Butler’s notebooks, which are “some of the most requested materials in the collections,” he explained.

Perello is also known for his podcast, “The Candid Frame,” which has been ongoing since 2006. The over 600-episode show focuses on the art and soul of photography. Through his interviews with renowned and emerging photographers, Perello delves into what it means to lead what he calls a “photographic life.”

“Sometimes that involves a photographer who’s a full professional editorial or commercial photographer, and then there are other photographers who are leading normal lives but are still producing exceptional work.” His interviewees hail from across the world and include photographers like Elliott Erwitt and Douglas Kirkland.

The show is Perello’s love letter to the craft and focuses less on technique than on the power of a single snapshot.

“I don’t focus a lot on equipment and gear,” he said. Instead, he hopes “that this show proves to be an important archive of photography and our times. The people I often talk to feel like they want to do something more than just make pretty pictures,” he continued. “There’s an underlying passion to want to say something and communicate something with people through their photographs.”

But more than anything, Perello said he hopes to inspire others to follow their photographic aspirations and grow confident in the power of their singular perspectives, just as he had all those years ago.

“What’s always driven me is that I could create something that would evoke a reaction in someone else — that the way I saw the world was validated. That’s what I felt as a kid,” he said. “That’s been my throughline throughout my career as a photographer, the idea that the way that I see the world is valuable and that it has and can have an impact.”