Academics

Sophomore’s Photography Exhibit First Step in Dream Career

Shannon at her exhibitionIn fall 2013, I was lucky to have my photography exhibited at Land of A Thousand Hills coffee shop in Roswell, Ga.

I got the opportunity by emailing them a few samples of my work, and they loved them! My photos were exhibited the next month and the opening night was one of the proudest moments of my life. The work I displayed was mostly nature shots, but I had a few portraits and photos from France and downtown Savannah as well.

Having my work in a coffee shop gallery taught me more than you might think. It taught me to take both criticism and praise, and it also helped me understand what my Oglethorpe photography professor meant by teaching us to arrange photos in a pleasing and easy to understand order. What I learned in my Compositions in Photography and Introduction to Digital Photography classes with Professor Sigrira Perret-Gentil helped me choose and create the most technically correct, universally appealing, and yet personally striking and meaningful photographs.

Adirondack On The Quad

Adirondack On The Quad

Even though most of my background is in nature photography and working with posed subjects, my dream is to be a photojournalist and capture real-life situations that cannot be re-created in a studio. I want my pictures to tell a true story. And I want those stories to challenge the ways people think about my subjects. Ultimately, I want to be a photojournalist for a non-profit that works for animal welfare.

My internship with Pegasus Creative in the Spring 2014 semester is teaching me to take pictures in the moment that will preserve those moments forever in Oglethorpe’s history, and to express myself in a visual way through photo essays— something that I could not have done before.

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