The photography, film and fashion industries are some of the more difficult fields to break in to.
To college students, it seems like you have to be an expert before you graduate to make any progress.
Senior Blake Eiermann has a different philosophy for making it in all three of these professions.
“I’m open to whatever [working]experience I can get,” Eiermann said. “I’m determined, but I’m super flexible. It’s important to be adaptable to go into an uncertain field.”
Eiermann is a digital filmmaking major and marketing minor, but he has been building professional photography expertise since high school when he started his own photography business as a junior.
His versatile optimism boded well this summer in Los Angeles, where he was a teaching assistant at a teen filmmaking summer camp called SOCAPA.
He returned as a published photographer in Ellements magazine.
Oh, and one of his subjects, Lacey Rogers from El Dorado, is on the current season of “America’s Next Top Model.” How’s that for networking?
“All of that really came from me just putting myself out there to get a feel for the city,” Eiermann said. “I just wanted to save up and live in L.A. for a summer and meet at least one person. I think most people should…get a feel for what [they’re] going to do after school.”
Although he went to L.A. with a part-time job teaching at the film camp, Eiermann had saved enough to continue living there for a few months.
Knowing how difficult it is to break into film and fashion photography, he intended to try to make connections before graduation so he’d know what to expect.
After meeting Rogers, also new to L.A. and an Arkansas native, she and another male model agreed to do a gluttony-themed photo shoot with Eiermann.
“I submitted [the shoot]to a few places and got rejected,” Eiermann said. “But this magazine had been following [Rogers] on social media and said they wanted to publish it.”
When Eiermann graduates next May, he hopes to work in marketing, high-fashion photography and film while incorporating music.
“I’m heavily inspired by music,” he said. “It usually comes from a song or a lyric. It’d be cool to go into making music videos.”
He’s already on his way to breaking into high-fashion photography.
“I’ve had some models reach out to me since [I was published], especially with Rogers’ growing popularity,” Eiermann said.
During his senior year, he wants to continue building his portfolio and capture as much of Arkansas in his work as possible.
This article originally appeared in the Sept. 9, 2015 print edition of The Echo.
image via Facebook
