Should Photography Be Something That's Studied?

I've had a lot of thought on this subject. But it's something I really should have thought about a lot more before I took it on for five years through college and then university.

Through reading a lot of blogs and interviews lately, whether they're well-known or unknown photographers, has got me thinking about my own choices in studying photography.

In the majority of these interviews, said photographers have all been asked the question 'Where did you learn photography?' and their answers have pretty much always been 'I'm self-taught'.

And their body of work is amazing. It doesn't matter if they're even just on Instagram - they have photographs that reach people and that they're proud of and it's all because they've gone in their own direction instead of being set projects to adhere to and then being told what's "wrong" with your work when photography is supposed to be subjective??

Woah. Clearly I have some pent up anger with this subject.

So why did I choose photography? It all started really when I was playing around, photographing the park we always went to one summer with my dad and sisters. He just happened to mention that he thought I had a good 'eye' for photos which kinda stuck in my mind.

I didn't seriously think about it though until college. My art class was dropped due to lack of interest and I was worried about what subject I'd pick up instead because I really didn't think I was suited to anything like sociology or maths or science. My worst nightmare. Instead I picked psychology as I thought it would be interesting (hardest. subject. ever).

And so photography, being the only creative outlet I had, was what I turned to (being one of my three subjects - psych, english lit/lang and photography (I didn't pick up film until second year).

So, like I said above I studied photography for 2 years in college and even though I loathed the teacher I, for some very strange reason, then went on to study a further 3 years at University. Um, what?

I don't know how my brain figured that one out. But after five years of crappy teachers and being told my work wasn't good enough when I've worked my absolute ass off was a little disheartening and these days I don't even want to pick up a camera that often any more, if at all.

That's probably why the majority of my posts tend to fall into the review category because I find it easier to quickly snap a photo of a book or something than trying to think up something creative. In fact, I find the writing of blog posts easier than the taking of photos.

So, no, I don't think photography should be something that's studied because, in my experience, it blocks the creative process within you, it doesn't bring out what you can do best because you have project rules to abide by and teachers breathing down your neck about what they think is best when in reality that's just their ideas being forced onto you.

Okay, I understand they have a marking scheme to look to and it is useful to get feedback on your work and sure, it's good if you want to learn about the technical stuff like exposure or depth of field. But - in all honesty - you can learn that basic stuff online if you really wanted to and then be free to explore your passion on your own. Anyone will give you feedback, it doesn't necessarily have to be from someone with a photography background.

I do not regret my choice however, because I met my best friend in college and my boyfriend in uni. It all could've been very different if I had chosen to study something else instead ✌︎

p.s. don't you think the emoji chocolates are cute? Got them for Adeel for Valentine's 🙊



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