Introducing Gwangju News’ Co-Photo Editor
Written and photographed by Sarah Pittman
Photography for me was kind of an accident. From a very young age, my grandmother and my father fostered in me a love of art, and I dabbled in everything from painting to sewing. The closest I ever got to a camera, however, was the Canon point-and-shoot my parents used for their eBay listings.
It wasn’t until I started working with the characters at Disneyland that I really got interested in photography as an art medium. Working day in and day out to try to help capture other people’s memories in a special way inspired me to try it for myself. Luckily, I had a whole cast of friends whose entire job was photography, so I learned a lot by asking how they captured the moments.
I was still new to photography, and since I didn’t have thousands to spare for a hobby, I bought everything secondhand and refurbished. To learn about different techniques, I binge-watched free photography tutorials on YouTube. I’d say this is the fastest way you can learn about different styles if you’re thinking about trying photography for yourself. During this time, I began driving all around Southern California to try my hand at street photography, portraiture, and nature photography. For a while, I even had some paid gigs as a wedding photographer.
A year later, when my boyfriend Colin and I decided to come to Korea to teach English, I thought that I would try my hand at travel blogging and explore photography that way. I wanted to travel to Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia, to name a few countries, capturing every beautiful, unique moment. That was the plan at least, until we fostered a cute little fur ball named Cosmo. We couldn’t let him go, and so our travels became a little more local, and I began doing photo shoots with people around Gwangju.
Then, at the beginning of 2018, the GIC posted that it was looking for volunteer photographers for the Gwangju News magazine. I decided to throw my hat into the ring, and I did my first photo essay ever. I fell in love with food photography, and writing the food column every other month pushed me to try new restaurants and new angles, styles, and lighting to try to bring the food from my plate to the page. I hope that as the co-photo editor of the Gwangju News, I can continue improving my craft, and hopefully inspire others to try their hand at photography as well!
The Author
Sarah is a southern California native who spent many years wishing to see the leaves change color and snow on the ground. If you have any suggestions for which restaurant she should try next, you can find her on Instagram @hello_korean_adventure, or drop her a line on Facebook messenger.