Humans of AISB: “Using Photos to Tell a Story”

Many of us may have seen grade 12 student Nichita C. at certain school events with a camera in his hand. Some of us know him from the organization of Women’s Week last year, while others read his articles in The Bite. Nonetheless, he is an omnipresent student in the community, who shares his experience as a photographer, and not only.

What follows is Nichita’s story, in his own words:

I’m really thankful for how this school helped me shape my photography journey. In 9th grade, I took a photography course at this school, with Mr. [Pete] Stanley, which was really nice. That was the first time I did a photo journal. And actually, after I finished the first semester in 9th grade, I started doing more photo journals. It was really inspiring to be able to think of photography as a collection of photos and a story, rather than a singular photo that I take at one time.

And that was also when I really started to go back to the same place and take the same photo over and over again, until I felt more satisfied with it. And since then, I’ve learned a lot as a photographer, and [photographing] school events have really helped me build my portfolio, as well as random events that teachers asked me to photograph, and I volunteered to. I actually got to work with an agency, a press photo agency.

I also want to give a message to the journalism students at our school. One thing I really learned after doing journalism is that you have to think outside the box and try to push past your limits. Many times in my articles I would tend to try to take an easier, more comfortable way. Sometimes I realize that if you try, there is a very good chance things may happen, even if you don’t think that they will. And even if they don’t, that’s also fine. 

To give some examples for this, I remember I was writing an article that had a project which was led by one of the prime ministers in Romania, and I emailed him, and he answered! And I had never expected that to happen. And so I think many times if you just send an email to that person, things might actually work out, even though sometimes they don’t. 

And I remember, for example, somebody was working on an article about abortion, and I remember I called abortion clinics in Romania like seven times, and they didn’t want to talk to us anymore. They retracted their willingness to make a statement for [The Bite]. But regardless, I think it’s really fun to try, and I think sometimes you’ll realize that you can do stuff that you didn’t think was possible.