I love photography. Now, I know what you’re thinking: a historian of AO writing about photography? How predictable. And you would be insanely valid in thinking so. However, I’ve recently been reflecting on my photography journey and thought it would be worth yapping about. I also have two exams, a mag submission and a grand ol’ pile of other various tasks to complete, and this was the only thing I could think of.
You could say the first camera put into my ambitious hands was my dad’s used iPhone 6 when I was in sixth grade. I couldn’t tell you what possessed me to take a photo of every sunset, flower and animal, but I unknowingly did irreparable damage to my phone storage for the rest of my life by doing so. And yes, I could just delete it all — believe me, I’ve made considerable progress. But I have to say, some of those photos are pretty decent. More importantly, how else am I supposed to remember that one pretty flower on that one bush outside my house on that one day in 2019? Eventually, I think my parents noticed my weird obsession with photos, so the summer before ninth grade, I took a photography class at a nearby art school. And then, on my 15th birthday, I was given a Canon EOS Rebel T7. This was the beginning.
My Canon is my ultimate OG. This thing has been with me through all my high school hair phases (let’s not talk about that), traveled the world with me and gotten me some pretty good opportunities. The weird thing is, the very first thing I did when I got it was turn it to manual mode. AND raw. Basically, every photo I took required a time-consuming adjustment of settings and a ton of editing to look presentable. Why did I decide to go hard mode from the start?? Now, whenever I photograph any other human being, seven times out of 10, I’ll awkwardly ask, “Could we do that one more time?,” which is basically my photographer code for saying, “I forgot to check my settings and just took the darkest photo known to man of you.” But it’s okay, manual mode and I are like this 🤞. In fact, I am an advocate for starting the hard way. There is a certain joy I feel finally being able to subconsciously change my settings to fit the environment and finding the best editing workflow. It may take more effort and time, but there’s a beauty in taking your time.
I read once that photography is the closest thing we can get to time travel. Every moment you experience is unique — down to the minute, unnoticeable details — and will never happen again (despite all the deja vu you may feel … but that’s another topic of discussion). Somehow, humanity has invented something that immortalizes these moments and gives them new meaning; from the father and daughter strolling down the sidewalk hand in hand, to the double rainbow on the Hawaiian shoreline, to the fervent protest going on down the street, all moments are worth capturing.
Unfortunately, all of this means I’ve subjected myself to a life dedicated to constantly wanting incredibly expensive camera gear. I will be accepting donations ☺️🙏!!
Lia Tsin
Historian
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