My name is Bonnie Britt and I am a photographer from Nashville, TN.
I remember the first photographs I took. My father taught me how to use my grandmother’s old Mamiya 35mm camera when I was 10 years old, which I used for a long time. I took black & white portraits of him that day, and from then on I was constantly photographing. I was lucky enough to have a darkroom in my high school, and I used to skip my lunch hour to develop and print my photographs. I loved the way the chemicals smelled on my hands. Then going into college and learning the Zone System really sealed the deal for my love of black & white photography. I attended college for two years before finances got in the way. But being out of school pushed me into personal study, where my passion for photography has grown wilder and deeper than any swelling sea.
If I had it my way, I would shoot with film all of the time. But seeing as I don’t have a darkroom to work in and my budget for photographic materials is low, digital is the best choice for me right now. I shoot many concerts, capturing the high energy and using the colorful lights to my advantage. These kinds of photographs are fun for me, but my real passion lies in black and white documentary photography. My personal teachers are influential photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Steiglitz, Paul Strand, Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, and Annie Leibovitz to name a few. I have become a better photographer by studying their photographs, biographies, and artist statements, as well as watching documentaries and reading essays about such photographers. This intensive study paired with shooting hundreds, even thousands of photographs at a time have led me to my best images. I often worry that I won’t be able to make a better photo than the last, therein lies the photographer’s inner struggle. Then I remember: I’m twenty years old. I still have a lifetime of images to create.
I would definitely say that my love for photography has grown into an obsession. Lately I have been studying theory of photography. As someone who has a deep fear of death, I take comfort in knowing I am immortalized through my photographs. I can only hope that my photos will live on forever in the public eye, thus my soul
living on forever in my images. In the coming years I hope to attend the International Center of Photography’s one-year certificate program for documentary photography and photojournalism in New York City. I plan on publishing many books, as well as having photographs published in famous editorials and displayed in galleries all over the world. I hope to one day be a professor of photography and to always grow in my own work. My ultimate goal is to be on that list of photography masters. I understand that this is a huge ambition, but what can I say? I’m an ambitious photographer.
Links:
Website: http://bonniebritt.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bonnie-Britt-Photographer/192319760851257
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/BonnieBritt
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