Remember when your mom asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up? Most kids would list of things like a fire fighter, second basemen for the Boston Red Sox, a teacher, a dolphin trainer. When I was asked that question as a kid there were answers like a zoologist or a teacher but not until I was in high school did I ever consider a photographer. The summer of 1997 I spent at summer camp like the 7 summer before but this year my counselor was the photography counselor. I hadn't signed up to take photography that summer but because Sarah was awesome she let all of her campers play in the dark room a little during cabin activity time. The day I watched an image I took magically show up on the seemingly white paper just be being soaked in clear liquid I was hooked. From that day on I was interested, I'm not sure I'd say in love but there was an artistic seed that was starting to take root.
The following year I started high school and unfortunatly for most freshman photography was pretty much an impossible class to get into. It was always full of upperclassmen before us froshy's ever got to pick electives, but I didn't let that stop me. A friend of mine was also just getting into photography so we made a deal with the photo teacher (shout out to Mr. Strom!!!) where we could pay the class lab fee and just stay after school and play in the dark room and he would teach us even though we didn't have a real class. I spent more time in my high school dark room then anywhere else on that campus over the next four years. So when Jr year comes around and that "what are you going to be when you grow up" question surfaces again and this time with high exspectations of, not only an answer, but of plans for college, I was torn between something science related (I had loved Biology and thought maybe that would be fun, end up working at a zoo with animals) but the thought of AP Bio in my schedule for Sr year, to be honest, scared the crap out of me. So photography it was. It was the only thing I ever really LOVED to do, and was something I felt that I was actually pretty good at. I had after all taken two 3 dot images that year. (Side bar: dots were Mr. Stroms way to telling us which photos we took were good, bad or great. One dot meant it's in focus and doesn't totally suck, two dots was- hey you did a good job this is a nice shot. Three dots was pretty much you're the best and this image is awesome!!!).
So photography it was.... the next question was what the heck am I going to do with a degree in photography? Well I went all the way through four years of college and still had no answer to that. I am so beyond grateful that my parents were so supportive and never once told me that photography would be a waste. Even when I swore I'd be a broke artist, begging for change in front of the Burger King on Hunnington Ave they never told me that I couldn't. I'm so glad that all these things in my life lined up and sent me on this path because of all the places I could be or things I could be doing with my life I'm so happy and proud to be a photographer.
XOXO Spring
