Growing up in the 2000s digital age, my mom would always take photos of my siblings and I and record us on her camcorder so we had a lot of childhood memories to look back on. I was always the kid that wanted to see the footage as soon as it was recorded and understand how the cameras worked so of course my mom got me my own toy cameras to play with and I loved it!
Since I had such an early interest in photography, she then bought me my own purple Sony digital point-and-shoot camera and a pink VCR camcorder—but it was the camera and photography that truly stole my heart. Years later in high school, my mom got me a Canon EOS Rebel T5 and I took a photography class through the school where I learned about the rules of photography like composition as well as editing software such as photoshop.
Attending middle/high school in the 2010s, there was a major push to get more women and girls into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). As a well-rounded student, I was often looked at as a top contender for a position like this and hearing that “a career in the arts isn’t realistic), I didn’t think that I could do any of my artistic interests seriously so I enrolled in university for a Bachelor of Science in Data Management (a new field with a promising future) but I dreaded it and got a Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies instead (I still love this field and might still work in it).
As my Bachelor’s degree was coming to a close, I was thinking a lot about what would come next. I had wanted to work in immigration and refugee settlement, but what about all my artistic passions I used to have?
I always loved fashion so I decided that life was too short not to study it and enrolled in a post-grad Fashion Management program! While I started the program thinking that I would become a stylist, when I took a photo on my phone and posted it, a classmate complimented it and couldn’t believe it wasn’t taken on a professional camera. This is when I thought I could do photography seriously because it wasn’t just my mom or others who knew me well complimenting my artistic eye anymore. So one day I dusted off my Canon t5 from high school and started playing around with it again. While it felt like starting from scratch again, the process of re-learning the skill was fun and I decided that I wanted to merge my passions to become a fashion photographer.
I started posting my photos on social media and on my website when one of my classes required us to build career portfolios. Whether it was convincing my sister to model for me or taking couple photos for my brother and his girlfriend, I tried to just keep going and moving in the right direction. At the end of my one year program, I graduated and proceeded to job search for many dreadful months when my sister saw a job posting from a local photographer in search of an assistant and I applied… and got the job! I knew that this was a perfect opportunity for me to learn and grow my skillset and couldn’t be more excited. While I started out just doing behind-the-scenes content at photoshoots, I then took on the never-ending editing list and doing my own shoots under the guidance of my boss when I upgraded my camera earlier this year and I love it!
Now I plan to move to Toronto next year to continue living out my dreams and while I don’t know exactly what will come next, I know it’ll be amazing. What started with a little girl wanting to understand her mom’s camera has grown into a career that allows me to combine my love of photography, fashion, and creativity. Looking back, I’m grateful I didn’t let the idea that an artistic career “isn’t realistic” stop me from exploring something that has always been a part of me. I’m still learning, experimenting, and figuring out exactly where photography will take me, but working as a photographer’s assistant has given me the opportunity to build my skills, gain real industry experience alongside the best mentor, and finally take my passion seriously. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this journey, it’s that sometimes the interests we have as children are worth revisiting—and it’s never too late to pick up the camera again.
