By the end of last year, I was miserable with my university course and utterly bored with where my life was heading. I vowed to start the new year working on my wildest dream of becoming a fashion photographer, working on my life. So at the beginning of the year, when my mind was fresh and empty of all things, I wrote on a piece of paper a list of all the things I wanted to achieve with my photography this year. Little baby steps they were, to make my dream (which looked like they were a million galaxies away) less daunting. This paper is now lost amongst the junk that has occupied my desk over the months but the list still exists in my mind.
I began to spend the rest of my waking hours before and after school organising shoots and teaching myself how to retouch photographs. I entered Fall going to a shoot all alone with just a stranger I had asked to model for me and left Winter shooting with a team of creatives all helping me create the image in my head. Things were being crossed out on that list and I felt more and more motivated to reach my final goal of the year: entering the professional side of the industry by shooting agency models.
In my final week of being a teenager, I landed my first test shoot with a modeling agency. When I got off the phone with the booker, I was so happy I did a little jig in my seat and smiled the whole train trip home. The people around me must have thought I was strange, but I was so filled with joy I didn't care. I love myself now more than I ever have for working towards a brighter, more colourful future.
All you need to do is plant a dream and feed your dream. Feed it with courage and belief and good things will happen to you. Give up and let it starve and your dreams will crumble. So wake up, start taking small steps in the direction of your dreams and the future will belong to you.
You can do it, I promise you.
Photos of my first test shoot before Jo was whisked away to Japan for a contract.
Model: Jo @ FRM
MUA: Evie Karagiolis