Students – keep the faith

If you’re a student, keep the faith.

I am a student. A photography student, I spend my time reading, looking, writing and doing photography. There has been a lot of talk and debate about being a student studying on an Arts degree. Allegedly I am lining myself up for a catastrophic failure, in the process wasting my time and money while chasing an unattainable dream to change the world through images.

But please for a moment brush away the student stereotypes of Jeremy Kyle, David Dickenson and Pot noodles. My peers and I are attempting to carve a niche in a landscape already oversaturated. If the internet and blogs are to be believed then this is a reason not to try, to set myself up to fail. “Don’t bother doing a degree, you wont learn anything in an institution that you can’t learn in the field.” I hear them cry.

What people fail to realise is that in an institution you are surrounded by people who care, and by that I mean really care.  They also want to change the world.

I have never been told that I can’t do any thing, I have been knocked down and rebuilt. Taught to respect everyone and their views. I feel confident now not only taking images but telling stories, scratching around in the darkest grimiest parts of society to bring a light and voice to people who need their story telling. We are not wrapped in cotton wool, another preconception.

We are not told that everything is going to be fine, rather it is made very clear from the start how hard we must work to survive, we are under no illusions.  I’m not having a dig I ‘m sure that you learn all these things in the field as well, just bear in mind we are learning the same lessons as well. Learning by doing. Over the last three years I have been telling my stories in the real world. From struggling communities in East London affected by the upcoming Olympics, to the far stretching effects of PTSD on society. That to me is the real world.

This is not to say that when I walk out the door of my institution in three months time that I will stop learning, or that the second I walk out I will be taken seriously, join a huge agency and enjoy instant success. Far from it. I will have to work just as hard as the next guy, maybe harder. Impress, graft and network. Push my limits and make my own space.  A degree and fourteen grand of debt wont make a difference to the amount of work I will have to do. But I can say absolutely hand on heart that due to everything I have learnt I wouldn’t change my degree for anything.

The fact is that if you want something bad enough and you’re not opposed to a bit of hard graft then there is a good chance you can get it.

Please, don’t write us off just yet.

The above words are from James Allen, a 3rd year Press and Editorial photography student at University College Falmouth, where I teach. All words are his own, independent of the duck and/or my role at Falmouth. He is one to watch. I thank him for the perspective and thoughts, for which I only had to pay him in Pot Noodles ;). Please take a few moments to check his work out. duckrabbit welcome such thoughts.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/20938241[/vimeo]

@jamesallen55