Zach Tucker-Briggs Photography: 20 years later

It has been twenty years this month, January 2000, since I started my first college photography course. I have grown, learned, and changed a lot as a photographer in that time. I had been taking photos since before I was 10, when I received my first 110mm film camera. I have used various formats of film since then, and now of course I use digital primarily, but I remember looking for the perfect 35mm SLR camera for this class. I ended up with a 1970s Olympus fully manual camera (model number not coming to me). I was supposed to learn photography the way many had done before me, on a fully manual camera; i.e., shutter speed, aperture, film speed, lighting, etc. I also was told to shoot in black and white film only, because I was to learn how to develop the negatives myself. It has been a number of years since I have done this, but I am sure it would come back to me fairly quickly.

As classes commenced and I moved along with my photography studies, I learned so many skills that have shaped me into the photographer I am now. Like with all skills, I am still learning, changing my ways, AND breaking the rules! (Rule of thirds, anyone?!?)

I thought I would share a little of my work (including photos from college assignments), from 2000 through the my most recent. This will help me, as well as some of you, see how far I have come in 20 years! Twenty years is a long time, and I know there are things I don't do now, that I had when I learned them back then, but I know that I have learned a lot, and have grown as a photographer in twenty years.

This was one of the first photos I took in the winter of 1999-2000. I was surprised at how well this turned out, once I printed it in the darkroom. (Most of the following black-and-white photos are also from my first winter and spring classes, from 2000.)