Always learning

By Wing Kuang

Looking back on 2020, Jo Kalinowski believed she made the right choice to enrol in Photography Studies College (PSC) to pursue photography at this extraordinary time. 

The 54-year-old part-time photography student has recently completed her first semester at PSC, where she attended lectures every Friday and explored creative ways to approach photography. 

“It’s interesting. I couldn’t have done the course at a better time, even if I didn’t sign up to do it in my own home,” Jo said. “Every Friday was such a joy.”

Having previously worked in hairdressing as an artistic director, Jo has appreciated photography throughout her life and in her free time, she said she had always played around with her iPhone and taken photos.

And It was only four years ago when she got her first digital SLR camera that she got serious about photography. 

Jo taught herself photography by practice and she enjoys minimal and documentary photography.

Before attending PSC, she even created a documentary project about her daughters in summer. She later decided to systematically study photography to catch up with things she had missed and was recommended to sign up for a course at PSC. 

While she had been excited to start the course, COVID-19 and the first lockdown in March disrupted her plans. She deferred to the second semester in July, but then the second lockdown kicked in so she decided to just jump online and begin her photography studies virtually. 

Jo said she found the Friday Zoom classes at PSC were helpful to soothe the second lockdown.

“We had to create things that I would never have tried creating. That was an interesting process doing it from home, because of a lot of bad things wrapped around you in the lockdown,” Jo said. “We had a beautiful class and two amazing teachers. It definitely provided a bit of light at the end of the week.”

In her final assessment for the course, Jo was asked to create a piece of personal expression of a series of 12 images. She created a fictional photography project using dolls to express her personal feelings. “I just created something I never thought I’d create during lockdown,” she said.

Since 2018, Jo has hosted several exhibitions and was selected as a photographer as part of the Australian Association of Street Photographers’ 2020 Street Beats Exhibition.

She also recently selected as a finalist as part of the 2020 Australian Photography Awards in the open/illustrative category for her image Pomegranate.

As 2020 approaches its ending, Jo already has a bucket list for next year. 

As her project for her final assessment continues, she said that completing it would be her first goal for 2021, but she also wanted to continue growing her portfolio as a photographer. Otherwise, she said she looked forward to going back PSC in February.

“I think it’s a really interesting journey,” Jo said. “You never stop learning.”

jokalinowski.com •