Welcome to My International Year Abroad blog

I was very excited to do this one! It was about to be my first official photography course, something that I wanted to do for a long time. However, after the first class, having met the professor and been presented the task, we realised that the word “independent” from “independent photography studies” was a big part of the class, and so we left the class with no knowledge but with the request to think of a photography project idea. It was vague and confusing, even a bit dissapointing but ok…

I thought and thought, writed down notes everytime something came to mind, and eventually presented 6-7 different ideas. I was not too sure of any of them since I haven’t got that much experience in how a photography project is supposed to develop. However, I have to say that despite being an independent course, I did gain lots of knowledge and insight by the end of the class. The feedback she gave on our presented ideas was very thorough and detailed, and by seeing other people’s work and way of thinking, more or less experienced than me, I began to slowly understand the rhythm, the mindset, and get inspired.

She knew exactly which idea to suggest me to pick out of the 7 and she was very right, because it would have implied several useful things: to borrow a camera from the university so I can correctly take the shots, to get myself out there and promote my idea, to get people interested in my project and interact with them, and to think of ways to enhance the presentation of my project. This idea got it all covered regarding photography learning.

the satisfaction of capturing beauty so effortlessly

I knew I was always more into detailed close-ups than landscapes, I wanted big lens and to say something meaningful… so my theme turned out to be exchange students’ eyes. I got myself a big board, wrote a catchy headline that involved free chocolate for the participants, and for 3 days I stayed in the university hallway trying to catch students’ attention. In the end I’ve got around 30 volunteers who agreed for me to capture the beauty of their eyes in 3 different shots that came with 3 different tasks.

It was very fun, and although at the start I had the impression that not much was going to happen in this class, I was wrong. Valuable insights were acquired and trust and confidence in myself kept growing stronger. I noticed that even though a lot of courses require independent studies, my motivation to learn and discover ways to teach myself things was pretty big and never lost.

If you want to see the whole digital version of the book it’s here:

VALUABLE LEARNING POINTS FROM THE LECTURES

• Elina Brotherus (self-portraits and landscapes), Marja Pirilä (camera obscura technique), Arno Rafael Minkkinen (body and the environment) – Finnish photographers
• Reidar Särestöniemi, Kalervo Palsa (fantastic realism) – Finnish painters
• Niillas Holmberg, Rauni Magga Lukkari – Finnish Sami poets

…before there can be art there must be memories and before memories, there must be experience

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