Reaction Paper: FIT Trip

Before the Thanksgiving break, my photography class was given the opportunity to visit the Fashion Institute Of Technology campus in New York City. Myself and a couple students decided to take an early train to do some exploring in the city before the tour started in an effort to capture some interesting street photography, and it was as one of us had an interesting run-in with a homeless man they were photographing, I hope it develops into an interesting image. We arrived at the campus and signed in and greeted each other as we waited for the tour to start, it was a nice looking campus and there was a great opportunity to see the photography students at work as they were setting up an installation of some of there works as we were waiting. We were greeted by our guide Brad Paris who is one of the photography professors at the school, as we walked to the photography section we can see the other classes and all the works that were presented from students from advertisements to clothing and footwear showing that it's more than just a fashion school. We also got to see the classrooms as well as the lightly used darkroom, The darkroom may be turned into a lab station as digital is really taking over and it isn't being used as much which is pretty sad. One of the last stops was the equipment room, where all the lenses and camera gear is held for students to check out and use for projects, the best gear can really bring out the creativity in a project especially if the student has low-quality lenses and require a certain lense to get the desired look. As we walked we stopped at an open room where students were setting up a studio shoot on a white backdrop, we got to see just how things worked for a moment before continuing on to the room we were meeting in. As we sat and unpacked we were given the new upcoming course outline for transfer students joining for the fall of 2018, as we can become 5th-semester students through the transfer program. Brad also was able to critique our portfolios and give us advise on making a steady portfolio to submit upon registration. I didn't have any recent work to present so I used some images from my previous semester and he suggested I merge my colorful landscapes with my glasswork to form a cohesive style, which is not a bad idea. We ended the visit and met at a great Chinese restaurant that I can't remember the name of but the workers were very interesting as they made a table there prep station, which was more interesting then unsettling. In the end, I walked away with thoughts of the future and what lies past graduation and if two more years is necessary or not or if time would be better spent building a future photogr[hy path on my own and invest those resources elsewhere. Only time will tell where this photographic path will take me.