I came to photography gradually: it wasn't a decision... It became a need with time... It happened slowly, for a long time, maybe for twenty years before digital and internet were here, since I was a child. First, alone with books (Ansel Adams series and others) and then, with older friends at high school to learn how to develop and print.
I would say what helped me the most was shooting slides and polas under direct, constant attention and critic from older photographers (teachers) in classes that for seven years included most of the poll's options. Especially interesting and moving, more than theory and practice, were Art History and Photography History.
Anyway, I feel I learnt more than ever while starting to work in photography for money, even if I had already ended my career, and even though I had experience and equipment in all formats and I felt I was ready... I must admit I wasn't ready at all for the pro level... I wasn't bad, but the real photographers' world is tough. And another thought: first I specialized one year in fashion with my Hasselblad and using both my lights and school's studios ones, and then one year in product with large format and another year in Architecture and Interiors, with large format too: preparing for hours one single shot in Product for a perfect, unique slide, tought me to really look at composition in a new and almost obsessive way, and using natural light only -a moving and changing one- without any hurry in Architecture, tought me -about lighting character and metering- a lot more than my year in fashion with lots of sessions with models and different sets of controlled lights!
Photography is a very complex science and art... So deeply subjective and so deeply objective too!
I voted class.
Cheers,
Juan
