Internship Diary: A Passion To Learn

Thinking back to before my internship at PATTERN started, even before I had applied for the internship, I was a few weeks away from starting my senior year of college, and was scrambling trying to find something I was passionate about and could truly see myself doing in the future as a career. After applying to what felt like hundreds of internships, one day I found a post about the internship program at PATTERN and immediately applied.

Throughout my time in college I have had multiple internships, most of which were not very beneficial to my career goals and never really challenged me in any way. However, it became very evident, very quickly, that my time at PATTERN would be extremely beneficial to my overall skill set.

I came into the PATTERN office on the first day of the internship not really knowing what to expect. I didn’t know much about the magazine, the other interns, or really what I would be doing on a day to day basis. But after just a few weeks of being in the office, I found myself learning and adapting quickly, trying new things, communicating and asking other interns/fellows questions and in general, having a lot of fun.

Being one of the photography interns, I learned a lot about studio photography and lighting by taking advantage of the in-house studio shooting models and products. I also got the opportunity to assist on other photo shoots, and shoot a wide range of people and products for online stories. The best experience I had during my time with PATTERN was planning, sourcing and shooting a streetwear editorial fashion shoot. This was the first time I had the opportunity to do anything like this and it really opened my eyes to the world of streetwear and fashion photography and the opportunities there are for me to continue working in this field.

For the longest time I never really knew what I wanted to do as a career, but after my time with PATTERN I can confidently say I know what I want to be doing after graduating this spring: photography and/or fashion photography. PATTERN has given me the opportunity to delve deep into my passions and explore new and related interests and projects. There are very few internships that provide the types of opportunities that PATTERN does, and I am so grateful for the people I have met, knowledge I have gained and relationships I have formed.

Living in the midwest my whole life, I always saw myself as someone who would get out of Indiana as soon as I graduated, but now I can definitely see myself staying in Indianapolis to develop my personal portfolio, and continue working with the plethora of talented artists, brand owners and creatives that the city has to offer.

If there’s one thing that I would take away from my time at PATTERN (besides the abundance of photography knowledge and other applicable skills) it would be this: Whatever you’re doing, go into it willing to do everything, with a passion to learn something, and I guarantee you, you’ll have an extremely rewarding experience.

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