The struggles were real. The end product was a realization.
Never have I ever been so malnourished and stressed out it my life.
This not so graceful image of my final portfolio book perfectly describes my two years at Humber College. I'd like to say that with a lot of love and dedication, this beautifully polished book was born. But in all reality, this book was born in a hellish storm of tears, panic, wicked anxiety and 12 hour days fueled only by a constant flow of coffee and pizza grease.
Let me explain.
We were told rather early on in the program that this was to be the fruit of our labor. The very product we would show off to the world as if we were Rafiki holding Simba in a beam of glorious sunlight. I don't discredit what they said. When this book was done, I really did run around with it held over my head.
Moving on, included in this book was to be a specific number of products, portraits, photos shot on location and 4 "other marketable images" (whatever that meant.) By the end of it I had 20 photos. That's 20 different shoots, each requiring scheduling, studio time, shooting, editing and test printing. Not to mention that while we slaved away over this book, we also had to prepare wall ready gallery images and focus on the remaining 15+ photo and video assignments thrown at us seemingly just for fun. Did I mention we only had 15 weeks? Some of us tried to maintain some semblance of a personal life, most of us gave up signified by the grease in our hair and the bags under our eyes. (See below)
Gallery Promo
All in all, this book is my pride and joy. Holding it feels like some kind of magic where my work suddenly truly exists in the real world instead of just on screen. Now that it's all over and the wave has passed, all I can think is:
We fucking did it. It's real. It's all very real.
Reverie 2015My table at the 2015 Humber Creative Photography Gallery.