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What she photographs

I photograph just about everything. I love photographing in the studio, on the street, anywhere. I went to Randolph Community College for commercial photography and graduated last August. So far, I've shot some weddings, family portraits, bridal portraits, etc. I've been keeping up with my personal work but not as much as I'd like. I have a lot of ideas that I have yet to pursue. I did a series of semi-obscure fashion photographs at Elsewhere Artist Collaborative for a photo class I took at UNCG last semester. This was my most recent project and the photographs are still hanging up in Elsewhere.

Why she wanted to be a photographer

I've wanted to be a photographer for a long time. I have known it was what I wanted to do since my junior year of high school. I started to take a black-and-white darkroom class junior year. I fell in love with the process of shooting and printing it. From that moment on, I was determined to succeed in photography. (Actually, that determination never really went away.) It was the thing at which I most excelled, and I just fell in love with it - the art and the beauty of it. It is almost hard to describe. I also loved the idea of being able to capture a moment in time forever, how a photograph can serve as proof that something happened or that something was there, even things that seem simple or insignificant. All I can really say is that I have a passion for photography that cannot be compared to anything else in my life. Maybe I was just born to do this. That's what I like to think.

Photo that made her cry

I don't really remember any single photograph making me cry, but several of James Nachtwey's photographs really upset me; they show certain truths and those truths are hard to look at sometimes. War photographs upset me because they are so gruesomely honest.

What she photographed when she was a child

I made my first photographs at the beach when I was in 7th or 8th grade. I used a lime green APS camera with black and white film. I shot photographs all over the beach. I remember my very first photograph that was successful. We were at the beach with some family friends, and one of the younger kids was running in front of me ... There were all these jelly fish and seaweed all over the ground, and I put her into a third of the frame on the left side. That was my first photograph.

After that I took a break from photography for a while and started playing drums. I picked (photography) back up sophomore year, during which I got my first SLR, fell in love and began frequenting antique stores to photograph all these amazing old objects.

Digital or film?

I'm a total film snob, but in this day and age, digital is the way to go. I hated digital so much at first - not physically having your photos in hand really scared me. Photographs that are actually just ones and zeros and that could be deleted and never seen again really, really scared me. But I've gotten used to digital and am pretty skilled with it now. I'm still a film lover (especially 4x5) and love being in the darkroom, but, unfortunately, there just isn't much time for it anymore.

What she wants to be remembered most for

I hope people remember me for my photographs, and my love for photography.

- Carla Kucinski Seward