Photography Personal Statement Example 5

As I walk through the Sheffield city center I notice everyone stares straight ahead, eyes latched onto their path, But my eyes, as if incapable to control them are looking up, taking note of geometric shapes buried in architecture, how the afternoon sun is vibrant and providing. Naturally, my hand reaches for my camera and begins to set an appropriate aperture. I realize how photography has altered my perception of the world, given me the tools to interpret my surroundings uniquely, conjuring inspiration from the most insignificant of objects. For me Photography is more than just “technically perfect rendering”, it’s the ability to show emotion and tell a story through composition and lighting, I love to experiment with these two aspects as the minutest of changes can drastically alter ones perception and evoke particular feelings. I often take walked during different times of the day within the same route so that I may appreciate the effects the light has on the textural properties of my immediate environment. Often, the most beauty comes from the people along the way.

Capturing the raw emotion of situations that may evolve from something as trivial as a hug, a wave, a kiss. For me, this is why I’m naturally drawn photography. People. Whether candid or set up in a studio, I feel very connected to people and emotion, so being able to draw the essence of someone’s personality and capture it into a single frame is truly a remarkable and inspirational feat.

Despite having such a keen interesting in photography my early career choices do not reflect this, I believe due to lack of guidance. Even though I had keen interest in art I studied an Electrical installation course, which led to a career that did not particularly suit my personality. After much deliberation I chose to travel to Australia for 4 months, where I met many different cultures and experienced breathtaking scenery, this venture helped me grow substantially as a person especially in self-awareness. Upon arriving back home I made all the necessary enquiries about pursuing photography and found that due to having no A levels my best option was to enroll on an access course, the nearest being 2 hours away in Sheffield. At 23 I now live independently in Sheffield balancing a full time course, job and relationship so that I can finally be who I want to be. I can easily say that it has been difficult, especially having to fund all costs of me living here. But aren’t the hardest of endeavours the most rewarding? By living on my own I have become more independent, controlled, focused and aware of the value of money. Along with all my life experiences I believe I am more than capable of committing myself and my time into university whilst being able to cope with the many mental, physical and emotional demands it requires.

Having had an extremely busy year I have been unable to gain any experience hands on with another photographer, though I am very hopeful to gain this during the summer. Though I lack of actual experience I am very knowledgeable due to constantly having a book in hand or glued to a computer reading tutorials and entering competitions to better my technique and understanding. My inspirations are continuously growing the more I read but are mainly drawn from photographers such as Rankin, Markus Hartel, Ansel Adams and Rui Palha through both personal research and college work. My Interests include reading, playing rugby, photo manipulation, films and cinematography amongst others. I am extremely excited about the challenges of university and hope my ambitions will help pursue greatness in the industry.