Written by Kelsey McKinney, a 2010 visual arts graduate.

I am a new photographer. Though my mother took photographs of my sister and I all throughout my childhood, I had never placed my eye behind the lens until August. To be fair, I knew how to point my digital camera toward objects and shoot, but it wasn't until I found myself in Cassie Edmondson's fourth period class that I learned the beauty of the photograph.

            There are thirty people crammed into my photo class. We are dancers, painters, set designers, and musicians. We are all talented in incredibly different ways, and for many of us the only thing we have in common is this one class. Though we may fight and bicker over who gets computer priority, ultimately we are honing each other. Our unique areas of expertise allow us to individually approach photography in exquisite and beautiful ways.

            On “inspiration days”, the thirty of us huddle together and watch projections of up-and-coming photographers. We dream of adopting their styles and are taught the nuances of their approaches.  We learn, through practice and assignments, our own places in the photography world. We learn what exactly it means to be a photographer.

Some of us spend days in the dark room self-developing and becoming the next Stieglitz or Adams.  Some of us spend hours stationed at the nearest computer sharpening our Photoshop skills. We use photography to project our views as artists. Whether that be through the darkroom, or iMovie, or soundscapes; we are taught to create.

We are being taught the beauty behind a captured moment. Slowly, we are learning the perfection in that single solitary second. But most important, our photo class is teaching us how to bend that time into a reflection of ourselves. We are becoming photographers.