I first came about photography when I was twelve years old, when me and my father, who was already a keen amateur photographer having done many weddings and portraits, went to our local photography shop and bought me a very basic 35mm compact camera. From that moment I fell in love with photography taking my little camera everywhere with me, documenting my life as I lived it shooting probably hundreds of films in its time of use. As I was progressing in my photographic knowledge and experience, my dad one day out of the blue gave me his 35mm Nikon SLR which he used to take with him and shoot just as I used to take my camera.
With this camera my experience and passion grew as I became more confident in my own ability. However, unfortunately the Nikon F-401s was replaced in 2007 with my Nikon D80 when the film catch broke, in my naivety I didn’t replace the catch and opted for the new flashy digital era camera, which, as it happened came in rather handy when it came to my A-Levels as the course was entirely based on the digital medium. I found the process cold and meaningless and to start with felt almost lost with why I was doing photography as the passion had almost faded.
However, the more I used the medium and the more I experimented within the camera, I found that you could do much more with it that wouldn’t ever be possible on film, when something seemed to reignite inside me as I seemed to find my passion that I had and felt when I first picked up my 35mm at the age of 12. By the end of my second year of A-Levels I had found my purpose within photography and was produced in my opinion my best and most exciting work ever, I guess you could say that the final year of A-Levels was a turning point in my life in making my decision to take my practice further, into education but also into the world of photographic practice as in my second year I had been commissioned to photograph a wedding, which went outstandingly well and so well in fact that subsequent portrait work has also come about, when you’re 16 it’s a very exciting experience having people ring you up and asking to give you money for doing something that you love doing.
However I felt that taking myself to higher education to learn more and more about the new mediums, the legal side of the practice and analysis of other images to inform my own image making; but also going back to my grass roots with film, and to find the character that is missing in this new digital era of photography, was the best route to becoming a better photographer.
In terms of work I haven’t managed to narrow down my style or preference enough to make a decision on where I would like to go with regards to my work based learning and obviously after that my life in general, this was one of the reason as well in coming to a higher educational establishment, to help me decide on a path for my photographic life.
By James Dowding
