Wando High Intern Valerie Yermal's Blog Post

My Internship at CCforP by Valerie Yermal

Senior year – it’s amazing, exciting and a whirlwind of nonstop action. This year I’m tapping into all my creative faucets, with 2D Honors then newspaper as the assistant photography editor, and then at my internship at Charleston Center for Photography.

It’s been hectic, it’s been exhilarating, and it’s been everything I could ever ask for with a few all nighters in between. I feel like I’ve already started at an art college because of how much I get to tap into my creative side, it’s just amazing, I’ll get an idea from something we talk about in art class, then I can bring it up as a story idea in newspaper and then I go to internship to consult THE Stacy Pearsall of ways to carry out my idea; I’m in love.

I’m already learning so much more than I would’ve any other way, about how a business runs (especially a non-profit organization like the Center – that needs extra support from the dedicated community to stay afloat), photography techniques that I never would’ve heard about before, and the chance to work with top-of-the-line photography equipment 4 days a week.

At the Charleston Center for Photography we featured Bill Frakes, a renowned Sports Illustrated photographer which we had been preparing for since I started my internship and the exhibit will be hanging at the Center for the next month and a half. At the exhibit I mainly worked concessions, meeting a ton of new characters, all with a different story, and it was rewarding to see how seamlessly the Art Institute and CCforP work together.

Everything we do at Charleston Center for Photography is just awe-inspiring, we’re constantly giving back to the community, and the Center as a whole just has the best atmosphere anyone could ask for at an internship, a studio, a print lab, or a classroom. So come out and visit us all at Charleston Center for Photography at 654D King Street or at ccforp.org and support your local businesses! (all photos by Valerie Yermal)