Photography in ubiquitous in our present day world; there are no headlines released without an image, no news stories without accompanying footage or photo. There are no advertisements, television shows, or major events without a photographer behind them, watching and documenting. It’s so ubiquitous even that we often forget what it would be like without our visual history. I would like to go on after college and do just that, create visual history.
Next year I would like to declare a minor in journalism and use my honors contract courses to do extra work in the field of photojournalism. Currently I’m creating pictures for a yearbook, The Cazenovian, and a campus paper, The Quad. My main goals for my college education are to engross myself in as much material as possible so I’m knowledgeable and prepared to work as a photojournalist upon graduation.
As a freshman my long term goals aren’t quite as defined as a junior’s or a senior’s, but I’m certain that I’d like to work documenting people, be them here at home in the United States, or away in a war torn nation. Going along with this plan I’d wish to intern in a summer session abroad, perhaps in South Africa or India, or for a midsize to large-scale news agency here in the States.
Out of college I’d be happy working for a paper, but ideally I would like to get picked up by a humanitarian group working out of the country so that I could document their efforts and the people they’d be working with. Depending on whether or not I’m offered a job upon graduation I might attend a graduate school to receive a masters in photojournalism.
Aside from those main goals I’m ready to go where my job takes me. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is be a photography teacher. I’ve always admired my teachers, the work they’ve done, and the amount of knowledge that they held. I wouldn’t want to take on such a role until I’d done a massive amount of work, but I could see myself working as a teacher later in life.
So in preparation for my life ahead of me I’m ready to do whatever it takes to get the portfolio, knowledge base, and skillset that it takes to do this kind of work. And in the end I want to share my knowledge. I want to be able to take that front-page photo and send it home. I want to be the person that gets to bring the world to your doorstep.