Looking at how to get the job of your dreams, three Children's Express reporters interviewed photographer Sophia Evans.
| When I was young travel and adventure attracted me to photography – nowadays it’s about getting a good photograph. |
Behind small-rimmed spectacles and locks of unruly curly hair, Sophia Evans, a 33-year-old freelance photographer talked passionately about photography and modestly about her successes.
From her London base, Evans travels around the world to capture images for newspapers, magazines and aid agencies. At home she works as a freelance photographer for the Observer and Sunday Telegraph.
During the heady days of university, a boyfriend gave her a camera; she snapped away and slowly became hooked on taking pictures.
About to complete a degree in Latin American studies, Evans talked with a friend about life after university. Photojournalism cropped up.
"It was like a light went up. It had never occurred to me but when she said it, I realised yes that is what I want to do," said Evans, smiling at her naivety.
Evans and her friend set off for Latin America to become journalists. A night in jail in San Salvador, while it did not impress resident hard-bitten foreign journalists and photographers, provided a fast-track into that world for her.
She travelled around Mexico, Haiti and Texas documenting people's lives before returning to set up home in London.
"When I was young travel and adventure attracted me to photography; I was interested in the revolutions in Central American. But nowadays it is about getting a good photograph. It is about the language of photography, it is more about trying to say something with photographs," she admitted.
Hard work, persistence and support from her husband, a Mexican photographer have been key to Evans' drive.
"I have been working as a professional photographer for six or seven years, before that I was studying photography and doing waitressing to support myself. I have dedicated about 10 years of my life to either trying to be a photographer or being a photographer," she said.
She sincerely believes dreams must be pursued with true commitment and energy, no matter what the likelihood of success.
"Someone cannot teach you how to do photography. They can teach you how to use a camera and the technical side of things but the actual taking of the photograph comes from the mind, it is not something you can learn. You have to practice and practice and practice and learn through your mistakes."
Earlier this year, Evans was one of 12 photographers from around the world to be selected by the World Press to attend the much coveted Photography Masterclass and last year, she spent almost three months living with and documenting people's lives on the Miskito coast, an isolated jungle region in northeast Nicaragua.
She advocates that forming relationships with subjects has an important place in the job.
"If it is a celebrity - and you don't have much time - all you do is chit-chat, and talk to try and make them feel comfortable. But if you are somewhere for weeks or days, then you just involve yourself with the people. If they go dancing you go dancing, if they have a drink you have a drink, you just do what they do, you don't alienate yourself.
"My favourite part of the job is meeting people and then having the pleasure of being lead into their lives and photographing it - that is a journey in itself."
About the team
This article was produced by Mark Lunney, 13 Andrew Bailie, 13 and Michael Leathem, 14. It was published in the News Letter.
