You need to go to university be a a doctor, an engineer, a teacher or a psychologist. However, as with many of the creative arts, you don’t reeeeally need to study to be a photographer. Well, I did, and it was great. While I know many talented photographers who are amazing people and create incredible work that never studied, personally I found it a valuable and worthwhile investment.

I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up for a long time, when I was five I wanted to be a pilot. Throughout school I considered business, journalism, something travel-related?… nothing really stuck. Then I took Photography as a subject and I loved it. I went to quite a high-achieving school and I had it in my head that I needed to study something very academic and ‘brainy’ at university. However by the end of year 13 I decided I would follow my passion for Photography, the thing that made me most excited and inspired, and so went on to do a three year Visual Arts degree majoring in Photography.

Not to say Photography was easy and non-academic at all, it was a lot of work and was more than just taking pretty pictures. There was art theory, history, business, design, film, editing, studio work and much more involved. I loved having the opportunity to experiment in many different genres and styles of photography and multi-media disciplines. It was a safe (yet sometimes scary!) environment. We were all learning, developing our particular approaches and getting feedback from tutors and peers alike. I met many talented and inspiring people and developed a lot as a person over those three years.

There were definitely frustrations with university too. As any art-school student or graduate will tell you, art is such a subjective thing where everyone has their own individual opinion and having your own work (that you often poured your heart and soul into) critiqued and ripped apart by one then praised by another can be very confusing and sometimes even upsetting. In hindsight, I learned a lot from those critiques, I have a thicker skin against negativity, I treasure genuine praise as well as constructive feedback and my creative thinking has being pushed and extended beyond belief. I know who’s opinions matter and who’s frankly, don’t.

While my marks at University were nothing to write home about, and I would probably be a bit embarrassed to show some of the work I produced during that time, I learned a lot from my tutors and peers, and the experiences and opportunities that came to me through study so that is all that matters.

The images above are a couple from my final semester project where I had already started transitioning, finding my niche as a wedding photographer and I wanted my work to reflect this. I found that sticking to what I was passionate about rubbed off on others and made them excited about it too. I am so lucky to do what I do and grateful for everything in my journey that has brought me to today. It all becomes part of who you are. So, University study for a photographer, may not be necessary, but was a valuable and exciting experience for me and I hopefully inspiring and insightful for you too! xx