"When you see through the lens of a camera, you capture souls."
Dr. Sergio E. Schabelman has been an Interventional Cardiologist living in New Orleans, Louisiana since 1979. He was born in San Juan, Argentina, in 1951. His passion for photography started when he was very young, and would take pictures of everything and everybody that came close enough to his camera. He attended the School of Medicine at Buenos Aires University in Argentina and even though he was very busy studying, he never let go of his passion for photography and installed a darkroom in his small kitchen. His emphasis then, was black and white close ups of his nephews and nieces.
He married Florencia Levinton in 1974, finished his Cardiology Residency and moved to San Francisco, California, for a Fellowship in Non-Invasive Cardiology. There, he took pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Giant Sequoias, Yosemite, and the city skyline. In 1978, he moved to Loma Linda, California to do a Fellowship in Invasive Cardiology. He was thrilled with the opportunity of capturing in pictures the snow-capped mountains and the sandy beaches. However, nothing would prepare him for the picture frenzy he experienced in 1979, when his first son, Esteban (Esti) was born while he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Cardiology Department at Louisiana State Medical Center in New Orleans.
Sergio E. Schabelman,
M.D., F.A.C.C., F.A.C.P. Biography
In 1982, Dr. Schabelman started his Cardiology practice in the New Orleans metropolitan area, now with active status at several local hospitals, including East Jefferson General Hospital, Ochsner at Kenner and Touro Infirmary.
In 1984, his second son Andres (Andy) was born and, since then, Dr. Schabelman has accumulated more than 200 photo albums, an undisclosed number of slides, and endless hours of video movies.
His photographic portfolio include many interesting pieces: In 1988, one of his pictures won the privilege of being printed in the Southern Baptist Calendar. Another picture, of one of Argentina's picturesque neighborhoods, won an Architectural Honorable Mention. Twenty four of his Travel Photographs have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Three pictures have been published on the covers of The Archives of Internal Medicine and two more on the covers of The Journal of Louisiana State Medical Society. One photo from the Boston area was published in the worldwide Pfizer Calendar (October 2000) and two others have won Honorable Mention (1999 and 2003). Several photos were published in The Oncologist and several times his pictures of Jazz Fest have been published in his native San Juan’s web based “newspaper” www.grupoemedios.com . He has had photo exhibits in several local hospitals, restaurants and coffee houses and one of his pictures was on exhibit at the New Orleans Jazz Fest 2008. Another photograph has been on permanent exhibition at the New Orleans School of Jazz.
Since 2001, he has mainly worked with Digital Photography. He was commissioned to provide the artwork for St. Charles General Hospital in New Orleans where he was Chief of the Cardiology Department. There, over 100 digital photos from New Orleans, including series from the French Quarter, Uptown New Orleans, Jazz Festival and Mardi Gras were a permanent fixture on different floors and in patients' rooms, before Katrina. Now, several of them are in permanent exhibit at Touro Infirmary.
Dr. Schabelman loves to travel with his family. In numerous journeys to Argentina, inside United States, Hawaii, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Israel, England, France, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Germany, Austria, Check Republic, Hungary, Russia, Scandinavia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, the Amazon, Ecuador and Galapagos,Honk Kong, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, China, VietNam, Laos, Cambodia, South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, India, Tahiti, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Australia and Antarctica, he has been able to capture different people, cultures, and landscapes through the lens of his camera. His DVD with pictures and music from New Orleans has been very well accepted by tourists and natives alike. The pictures in this web-page are a sample of his work.