Clara's Clicks: a journey through my lens

The Spark: from darkroom dreams to digital vision

My name is Clara Robinson, I use she/her pronouns, and I am currently majoring in Art. I've always enjoyed photography. I took my first photography class in the 4th grade, not being super interested, but the teacher told me I had a talent for it. Years later, I took a darkroom photography class in my Sophomore year at a pre-college program during the summer time. This was my smoking gun. I ended up connecting to it on a deeper level than I ever thought I could. Thurston Howes, a famous 70s photographer, was my teacher. I studied at Maine College of Art and Design. At the end of this program, I was pulled out of the class and into the hallway and given a case of 9 lenses and an Olympus digital camera. I was the only student to receive this kind of gift. Howes told me, "You have something no one else in this class has. Passion. Use this camera and make as much art as you can; you'll grow with it someday." From then on, I've wanted to be a photographer. I plan to continue to grow in my college course and share my work with the world.

My Goals

I am going into art for my first two years, while waiting until my junior year to switch to Fine Arts. I want to be a photographer, so this is the best course of action for me to get into a network of other fine artists where I can enhance my skills. In this course, I'd like to know more about how the camera works and get a really good handle on my camera's settings, learn better composition overall, specifically to more contemporary images, and learn more about other photographers and how their work may influence me.