Pride in My Summer by Brinsley
Brinsleyof ASHEBORO's entry into Varsity Tutor's December 2016 scholarship contest
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Pride in My Summer by Brinsley - December 2016 Scholarship Essay
I am 19 years old and I am enrolled in my second year in the Commercial Photography program at Randolph Community College in Asheboro, North Carolina. While I am in an associate’s degree program lasting only two years, this curriculum is nothing to scoff at. When I ask myself what school accomplishment I’m most proud of, I immediately think about my Summer 2016 semester at RCC. It was easily the most grueling thing I have ever endured.
The Photographic Technology program at Randolph Community College is an extremely advanced, well-informed curriculum. I learned this as soon as I was immersed in the classes in my first year. My professors taught me every technicality I know about photography, but they also taught me something much more valuable -- holding a high standard for myself and my work. My classes encouraged me to push beyond my limits with each and every photo assignment I turned in. In my first couple semesters, I had already expanded my knowledge of my beloved art form past what I thought was possible. However, the Summer semester showed me that this was only the beginning.
I began my semester with four classes: Product Lighting, Introduction to Digital Imaging, Custom Color Printing, and Small Format Photography. In my first week, I thought it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t understand the warnings of previous graduates about the workload and the stress. After all, I was only going to learn some basic Photoshop skills, how to create a blog, how to print digital images, photograph products in the studio, and get a taste of photojournalism through Small Format. Then, the projects started coming, and they didn’t stop.
I lived buried in deadlines for eight long weeks. There wasn’t a moment where I didn’t have a print to make, a photo to retouch, a blog post to write, a shoe or fabric or other product to shoot, or a public event to go photograph. Small Format was definitely the most challenging of them all. In this single class, I had assignment after assignment that challenged me photographically and socially. One dreaded project I had was to photograph portraits of 36 strangers and take note of each person’s name, age, birthplace, and interesting fact about them. Another was the Industry Assignment. This required me to go into a local business and get permission to photograph their workspace and their employees in action. One of the most difficult projects was the Baseball Assignment. This required 7 top-of-the-line action photos of baseball players, forcing me to attended more baseball games than I could count toting around a five-pound zoom lens in 90-degree weather. All of these projects were assigned at the same time, along with all of the work from our other classes.
Each and every day for an entire season, I was challenged, critiqued, and pushed outside of my comfort zone. There were many times I turned in photographs that I wasn’t proud of due to the time constraints. There were moments I doubted myself, my work, and my ability to succeed in photography, an art form I have been in love with my whole life. There were instances I thought of dropping out like so many others did, and there were times I wondered if I might even pass. However, I held on tightly for the sake of my dreams.
I am now on a photography internship at a THS Creative, a photography studio in Greensboro, North Carolina. In a few short months, I will be moving to New York City to intern with Sarah Silver Photography. Seeing how far I have come and the doors that have opened for me, not a moment goes by that I am not immensely grateful for that Summer that nearly broke me. That semester tore me down and rebuilt me. It taught me that I can do incredible, amazing things as long as I keep fighting. In that eight weeks, I learned lessons about myself that will last me a lifetime.