Erin McNemar
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Sometimes life doesn’t go as planned, but it can lead you in a direction better than you could have imagined.
Senior and studio art major Logan Symonds graduated from Keene High School in 2014 and packed her bags for Jacksonville University in Florida to study nursing.
However, after becoming homesick, Symonds found herself back in her hometown attending Keene State College. It was then that she was out in an eight a.m. drawing class and rediscovered a passion for art she had had as a child.
The following semester, Symonds decided to take a photography class as well as open up her first credit card and buy her own camera.
Symonds began taking pictures on her friend’s farm and putting them on Instagram. After a while, people started asking Symonds if she would take their pictures. “It kind of just came out of nowhere, and then people kept asking,” Symonds said.
After photographing a wedding this past summer, Symonds decided to start her own photography business. “After the wedding, I got a lot of feedback and a lot of new clients,” Symonds said.
Symonds also does senior photos and said she is: “completely booked all of October for sessions and November.”
Isabella Delong, who had Symonds take her senior pictures, worked in two different sessions. “I decided to ask Logan because I had seen her photography before and I really liked simplicity of her pictures,” Delong continued.”What stood out to me was Logan’s ability to capture a person’s personality in her photography. She is very passionate about her work and it definitely shows,” she said.
Through all her art, Symonds, who was recently accepted in KSC’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program, explained her favorite thing to capture is the human figure.
In terms of photography, she loves lifestyle. “I do a lot of couple and engagement sessions. I love that. I love couples. I’m just very intrigued by human interaction,” she continued. “I’m actually doing my thesis for my bachelor of fine arts on human vulnerability and human connection. It’s just something that fascinates me. I love working with people,” Symonds said.
Lauren Power was one of the many people that experienced Symonds’ capability of capturing human connection. Power said, “She caught the most beautiful moments of my family without us even feeling it. We were just being us, and she was able to capture us in the most beautiful way. Logan made us feel completely at ease.”
According to Symonds, an important key to photographing humans is putting yourself in their shoes, to imagine how you would want to be seen in their situation. “When I go back taking photographs, I think of what I would want. If I had a boyfriend and we were being all lovey dovey, how would I want that. Or ‘this looks really cool through the bushes,’ just unusual things,” Symonds said.
Symonds has already booked two more weddings for this summer, but she doesn’t want to stop there. “I want to do more. I think it would be really cool eventually to be someone who is flown out to go take pictures of a wedding. I hope I can do that,” Symonds said.
Symonds runs majority of her business from her Instagram, LoganElizabeth.jpg, and her website, loganelizabeth-art.com, and she is looking to expand. “I definitely want to expand my clientele. Before I graduate, I want to have an established LLC [Limited Liability Company] and figure out more of the business side of things. I’m doing it on my own, which is a little tricky, but I’m pretty excited,” Symonds said.
While she may have started her college career as a nursing major in Florida, she is looking to end it as a photographer. “It’s weird to say I have a side business. Like, I’m 23 and I have my own business, that’s so cool. If you asked me five years ago if this was my plan; it was not my plan. But it’s so awesome this is happening for me,” Symonds said.
Erin McNemar can be contacted at
emcnemar@kscequinox.com
