In my short time at the Algonquin College Photography Program, I’ve noticed my photography style evolve quite a bit. First year was incredibly important and I learned more about photography in one year than I ever thought was possible. The only downside to first year was that we didn’t have a whole ton of creative freedom. For most assignments you could shoot what you want, but it had to fall into a certain criteria. I found that this made it very difficult to express myself at certain times for certain assignments.

That changed completely when I started second year. I basically went from being told exactly what photos to take and when, to having complete creative freedom. It was honestly terrifying and at first I wanted things to go back to how they were last year. I found myself doubting my ideas and struggling to come up with content I thought was good enough. Once I started shooting more frequently things changed, I very quickly realized that I love shooting close up portraits and incorporating colour into images whenever I can. At first I thought doing mainly close up portraits was bad and uncreative and that I should try and expand myself more and work on shooting the subject from a little farther away. Now I always will take a couple not as close up portraits when I do shoots just to give myself a variety, but ultimately in the end I always end up preferring the shots that are more close up of the subject. I’ve come to realize that that’s my style and how I like to shoot and I’ve learned to embrace and improve on it rather than trying to change it into something else.

Near the end of last year, I did a shoot inspired by some portraits taken of Andy Warhol. The shoot I was inspired by was shot by Richard Avedon on August 14th, 1969. The image that originally inspired me is a black & white head and shoulders shot of Warhol wearing a leather jacket and black turtleneck. I photographed my friend and fellow photographer, Jakob, as he closely resembles Warhol. I had him dress the same as Warhol was in that portrait (I also included sunglasses in some shots) and photographed him on a pastel purple background to add some personal style to it. The photos from the shoot turned out really well and I am very happy with them.

Something I recently found out that I didn’t know about is that Warhol was actually shot 4 times in his own studio on June 3rd, 1968. The portrait of him that I was inspired by is part of a series that Is accompanied by photos of scars from his bullet wounds. It’s crazy to me that he survived the shooting and even more so that it took me so long to hear about it. Andy Warhol is in my opinion, one of the most intriguing photographers and artists of all time and I think this just adds even more to that fact.