My name is Claire O’Boyle, I’m a senior Visual Communications major with a minor in Photography here at USC. I was born and raised in Columbia, SC but I spent my freshman year of college studying New Media at SUNY Purchase before transferring back home to USC because it was simply too expensive.
First and foremost I am vegan and straight edge. Vegan meaning I do not believe in the consumption of any animal product or by-product, I also do not believe in the use of any product made by a company that tests on animals. My philosophy is that if you aren’t an angry vegan – you’re just a vegetarian on a diet. Through my passion for hardcore/punk music I found the straight edge subculture, meaning that I do not partake in any use of alcoholic or drug substance. I believe in leading a sober life, free of any substance that could cloud my mind or judgement in any way.
I first got into photography at a young age. Both of my parents met as reporters for the Sumter Daily Item way back when, and my father always had a passion for photography. When he was younger, he built his own dark room in the house he lived in. Combining those two fields, he introduced me to the world of photojournalism.
I’ve always been intrigued by the visual/creative aspect of life. I find aesthetics to be extremely important. I started working with Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign a lot in high school, where I started our school newspaper during my senior year and was the photo/ad editor.
In the past few years, I’ve found myself shooting primarily film (with a Vivitar v3800N and a Nikon L35AF), and much less digital. This is probably because I’ve been without a working dSLR for a while (I’ve been borrowing a friend’s Canon 60D for a few weeks now). I’ve worked with primarily Canon dSLRs, I started out with the old Canon Rebel XT my sophomore year of high school.
I am extremely excited to take part in this class, I think it will definitely help me because though I’ve been shooting for years I have miles of improvement to make. There is a link to my flickr feed on the right side of the page.
