George F. Pearson
Florida International University
Miami, Florida
George is a fine art major at FIU, taking advanced photography courses. He learned darkroom skills in a college-level photo course he took while still in high school, and today is most likely to be carrying the Mamiya RZ67 he got when he was 16.
His strongest influences are Garry Winogrand, Russell Lee, and William Eggleston. “Winogrand said that you’re basically putting four corners on a couple of facts [and] Eggleston’s work showed me a new way of looking at things,” George says. “I learned that everything can be photographed.”
When we spoke with Nathan he was less than a year out of high school and about to conclude the first year of the academy’s two-year program, where his photo class assignments are often more than classwork. “Most of them are practice for me; they get my ideas going, and I go out and do my own shots,” he says. Several of the photos here resulted from that kind of inspiration. The smoking man is Nathan’s grandfather, who also appears in the staged behind-bars image—proving once again the value of a cooperative relative.
A photo history course introduced Nathan to some of the classic black-and-white images, and their compositional strength was a major influence on his work. “I think black and white makes a stronger statement than color,” Nathan says, “and I think that all my really strong compositions will be in black and white.” Still, because he shoots Raw files with his camera set for black and white, the Raw file is preserving the scene’s color so he can compare the results after the capture.
Two things were evident from our first look at Tyler’s photos: he’s got talent, and he’s got access. “My family is always outdoors,” he says. “We have a camper, and we go all around Florida.” Couple that with picking up a camera when he was 11 and you get an archive of images that includes “just about every species of animal native to Florida.” Tyler sells prints of his images at art shows and through his website, and he’s received several awards for his work.
Steven Spoto
Seffner Christian Academy
Seffner, Florida
Set Pieces
Although Seffner doesn’t offer formal photography classes, Steven, who is a senior at the school, added to his self-taught skills by joining the school’s photo club, which his father, Joe, instructs. “But what got me started in photography,” Steven says, “was the photography merit badge in Boy Scouts, which my dad also teaches.”
Steven’s been on the school’s yearbook staff for two years as a photographer and editor, and he’s won several first prizes in the Florida State Fair youth photography competition.
The documentary style and strong compositions that mark his black-and-white, toned, and muted-color photos attracted our attention. Steven says he’s definitely drawn to the carefully arranged, carefully thought-out image. “When I was first getting into photography…I saw the work of Ansel Adams, and he did a very good job of making sure that everything in his pictures was exactly the way he wanted it. I always thought that’s the kind of thing I want to try to imitate.
Billy Wrobel
Tufts University
School Of Medicine
Boston, Massachusetts
Alumnus
Billy was featured in the Student Union column in the June, 2003, issue, when he was a junior at Fallston High School in Fallston, Maryland. At that time he said that although his career goal was medical research and biochemistry, he was sure that photography would always be a part of his life.
Publication in the column was an inspiration. “To someone who’s 16 years old, to get published in something that people around the country can see, that’s a pretty significant thing,” he says.
After high school Billy studied chemistry at Boston College, then went on to medical school at Tufts. Upon graduation in May, 2012, he will be Dr. William Wrobel, practicing diagnostic radiology.
It’s a small magazine—51⁄2x41⁄4 inches, 16 black-and-white pages—handmade, unpretentious and totally engaging, charming even. Room 620 is published quarterly during the school year by the students in Joe Baltz’s third-year photography class at Joliet Central High.
Spectrum
Sam and Brandon are the sons of commercial, advertising, and fine art photographer Jody Dole, so it’s not surprising that photography would be of abiding interest.
Chris Fulcher
Newtown High School
Sandy Hook, Connecticut
Enterprise
At 17, Chris Fulcher’s already been in the photography business for over three years. And we do mean business.
He began taking photos at 14 because of his interest in paintball. “It became too expensive to play,” Chris says, “and I thought [photography] might be a way to still be part of the sport.” He borrowed his father’s camera and started shooting. A year later he had his own camera and his own business when an online magazine hired him to shoot at professional paintball events. “My parents would fly with me to some of the matches, and sometimes I’d travel with a paintball team.”
Second Thoughts The photos tell you pretty much everything about Monée’s choice of a second career. Photography was a passion—“definitely what I wanted to spend my second career doing,” she says—but food photography in particular…well, that kind...
Deanna Washington Gwinnett Technical College Lawrenceville, Georgia
Selective Focus At Gwinnett, from which she graduated last month, Deanna majored in commercial photography, but she’s currently hoping to make photojournalism the focus of her career. “I’ve planned a trip to Uganda in November,” she says. “I...