Speeches, shameless self promotions and other absolutions
Friday, February 3rd, 2012A few weeks ago I was asked to speak to the photojournalism class at my old college. I was thrilled with the idea of going in and speaking to a group of eager and ambitious photo students. It seemed like yesterday I was in their seats listing to greats like Annie Leibovitz or Joe McNally speak to a group of us, all wide eyed and ready to just barrage them with question after question. Not that I’m on the level of either Annie or Joe, but wow! It was really exciting being asked to do something that I thought I would never be asked to do. For the two weeks that followed being asked to come in and speak about my experiences as a student at the New England School of Photography and in the professional field I tried dredging up a speech. I was a blank slate. I ended up doing what I do best, I winged it. I came up with things to tell these students on the ride up while being heavily caffeinated….yeah, that’s what I’ll go with, caffeinated 
When I got up there, I was getting pretty nervous because I’m not such a great public speaker at times. Once I saw all of these kids whip out a pen and pad of paper I knew it was fuck or walk at that point. In any case, I’m not going to walk away from such a great opportunity as to have people listen to me. It was such a remarkable feeling having people write down what you are saying to them. I mean, shit, who really listens to me? I barely even listen to my own rambling half of the time. But I got to show some of my work along with some of the material that photo schools are going to throw at these students. I remember being in the same class as them and only 3 or 4 of us out of 15 planned on pursuing a career in photography. When I asked these students how many of them planned on transferring to another school to pursue this as a career, more than 90% raised their hand. Amazing. Plain and simple. It was a great experience and I really look forward to doing it again soon.
On a side note, how many of you have gone to my facebook page and liked it? If you haven’t, why don’t you go check it out and give it a like??? It’s easy, I’m a good guy and there’s plenty of great work up there to enjoy. Go do it now!
http://www.facebook.com/mattgrangerphoto
Keep your eyes open for the March issue of Mami magazine, I’ll have work in there for view!
Well with all of that said, I hope you enjoyed my rambling as much as I have enjoyed rambling. Now all of you fine folks go out and have a great weekend and try not to get incarcerated. That would just be a shame.