I was an Accounting Major at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and quickly realized that there was no future in a creative field, so I switched to the most creative business major possible – Marketing. I vividly remember calling my mother and letting her know. It’s as if she disowned me for sharing such horrifying news. My parents wanted their children to be doctors, lawyers or accountants. Sorry to disappoint, Mom (an entrepreneur) and Dad (a lawyer).
One can only take so much of a mundane business class, after business class, after business class. I needed to be inspired.
I took a leap and decided to find electives at the Boston College School of Arts and Sciences. It opened my world to photography and I could not get enough of the classes, practical and experimental. Remember when a darkroom existed where you could “dodge” and “burn” your photos? No need for a darkroom when you have Adobe Photoshop.
The digital era has shattered film photography and has led to innovators of the field closing up shop like Kodak, which was established in 1888 by George Eastman, and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
One of the most memorable and impactful classes I enjoyed was History of Photography my senior year, which I took with my then boyfriend (who is now my husband).
To explore the breathtaking images taken by Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, André Kertész, Brassaï, Dorothea Lange, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa… They were true artists taking you on their journeys with their distinct perspectives.
We try to visit exhibits of their work as much as possible. I remember going to Robert Frank’s exhibit at one of my favorite museums, Tate Modern in London. We were living there at the time and our daughter was 4 weeks old when we took her. She could barely keep her eyes open. She does not remember that day but we do. To share our personal history and our love for photography with our newborn… priceless.
I miss photography as an art form.
Selfies and self-titled iPhonographers have changed the photography landscape dramatically. I prefer composition, thought and quality over the insta-world we live in.
cbmcreative 