Photography graduates are finding exciting opportunities to work in a wide array of fields. Here is a list of different career options gleaned from real-life stories in the art world as well as the realms of theatre, architecture and design.
Dominic Nahr: Magnum photojournalist, based in Nairobi
Raised in Hong Kong, Dominic Nahr began his career while still a teenager, working as a staff photographer for the South China Morning Post. He moved to Canada to study at Ryerson, though all he knew of the school was that he could get a good international education there. “I had no idea Ryerson was this great photo and film place. I got lucky.” He initially studied film, but soon found that collaborative nature wasn’t for him; he wanted to work independently. “Ryerson helped me think,” he says. “It made me figure myself out.” In 2010, Nahr was invited to join Magnum Photos, widely recognized as the world’s most prestigious photo agency. He currently covers conflicts in Asia, Africa and the Middle East for Time magazine.
Julie Oh: Fulbright scholar and artist, based in London
In the last semester of a BSc degree, Julie Oh took an elective course in photography and decided to switch tracks. She enrolled in the University of Saskatchewan’s BFA program, and, by the end of her thesis show in 2009, two of her images had been acquired by the Canada Council of the Arts and she was on her way to a Fulbright scholarship and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “Through photography, I’ve learned to have the confidence to say what I want to say and be vulnerable at the same time,” she says. Her practice is now based in London, UK.
Jean-François Seguin: Owner of Jean-François Seguin Photography/Photographie, based in Montreal
When Jean-François Seguin started at Dawson College, he didn’t know much about photography: “I was a real beginner,” he says. “The studios were intimidating.” Within eight months of graduating, he had won awards from the Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators and Applied Arts magazine, earned contracts from major advertising agencies, and started his own business, with a team of assistants, makeup artists and stylists behind him. “The program teaches you all different types of photography: photojournalism, documentary, portraits, products, editorial, fashion, beauty, on-location—you get your hands on all of them.”
Esther Choi: Artist, professor and editor, based in Toronto
Since earning her MFA five years ago, Esther Choi has exhibited internationally, held research positions at Princeton and Harvard, and pursued her education to the PhD level. She is the co-founder and co-editor of Work Books, a publishing house dedicated to issues in contemporary design, and an assistant professor at OCADU. “I was keen to work with faculty members such as Geneviève Cadieux, who became my thesis advisor,” she says of her decision to study photography at Concordia. “She encouraged me to pursue my artistic and scholarly interests, regardless of their disciplinary categories.”
Anyse Ducharme: Artist and media-arts technician, based in Ontario
Anyse Ducharme, whose artistic practice spans photographic, new-media and digital technologies, credits her studies in the University of Ottawa’s BFA program with helping to get her career underway. “All of the teachers were professional artists, art historians or curators, and I bent their ears for advice many times—even after graduation.” While working in the Arts visuels et médiatiques program at a Gatineau college and winning grants from the Ontario Arts Council and awards at international competitions (like this year’s Flash Forward, the Magenta Foundation’s international contest), she exhibits her photographs in solo and group shows around Ontario.
Jeremy Lewis: Professional photographer and MFA student, based in Toronto
“When I left, I knew how to light, shoot, use all the appropriate software, build up a reasonable concept and follow a layout,” says Jeremy Lewis of his Sheridan education. “We even had the opportunity to work with stylists and makeup artists on both still-lifes and portraits, which is important—good communication with collaborators is essential in this business.” His clients have included Coca-Cola, Bell Canada and Toronto’s Eye Weekly (now the Grid), and he has shot celebrities from the Philosopher Kings’ Jon Levine to Matthew McConaughey. Eager to move his work to another level, he is currently pursuing an MFA in Photography & Contemporary Dialogues in Swansea, Wales.
Rian Lougheed-Smith and Aubyn O’Grady: Owners and operators of Klondike Drawing Company, based in Dawson City
“We definitely consult our class notes,” say Yukon School of Visual Arts alumnae Rian Lougheed-Smith and Aubyn O’Grady, who together have been printing T-shirts as the Klondike Drawing Company in Dawson City, Yukon, since they bought a used silkscreening carousel “on a whim.” “We need high-quality photos of our stock for when we apply to shows, or to send to magazines, or just for our own website. In class, we learned the basics of how to use proper lighting, how to use aperture and shutter settings on a DSLR and how to keep your battery from freezing when it’s 40 below.” In addition to their clothing line, Lougheed-Smith and O’Grady teach workshops and provide hand-printing services to locals, “or to Southerners who want one-of-a-kind subarctic swag.”
Al Sinoy: Product manager at top social-game company Wooga, based in Berlin
Al Sinoy gained the hard skills of photography in an unlikely place: the International Atomic Energy Association of the United Nations in Vienna, where he assisted the organization’s official photographer. This later came in handy: as a master’s student at the Vancouver Centre for Digital Media, he took portraits and green-screen photos, did storyboarding and planned shots for interactive photo projects. Reflecting on his education, Sinoy notes that “the program exposed me to new avenues in digital media and taught me how to approach the field in general, and build a career in it.”
The original version of this article appeared in the Winter 2013 issue of Canadian Art, a special issue on photography.
