How To Survive A Photography Internship

 Hi guys! Liselotte asked me to tell you something about my experience being her intern and give you some advice, so here I am! My name is Nienke, I’m 22 and in September I’ll start my last year in art school studying photography, ready to graduate. Fingers crossed! Okay, so about my internship..

Surprisingly enough I never did anything fashion photography related before (let’s forget the times when I was 15 and tried stuff with models aka my friends), but that was kind of the reason why I wanted to try. I always make documentary work and I love doing it, but..

It’s very normal for an (art school) student to doubt yourself in your second or third year. Is this really what you want to do for the rest of your life? I was really fed up with photography, but decided that maybe a different genre would shake things up.

It did! Liselotte had lots of interesting shoots during my internship and every day was different. There were days we were just doing some research or editing in her studio and other days we would be somewhere in the country for a photoshoot. Can we talk locations? Wow, amazing!

I learned a lot about how to act professional, about fashion photography and even some editing. But I think I learned the most about myself. During your internship you really discover things that you like to do or what you’re really good at. It was great how Liselotte never treated me like a coffee girl, she really made sure I was involved during her projects and I felt important.

My advice to all of you guys while looking for an photography internship or during:

– Find an internship YOU wanna do. Do listen to your teacher’s advice, but if they suggest something you don’t 100% agree to, don’t do it.

– It’s an internship, not your entire life. It’s just practice for the real world. If you get rejected by something you were really aiming for, don’t cry too hard. It’s not the end of the world.

– Don’t be afraid to look outside your comfort zone.

– Be honest. If you don’t know how to do something, don’t fake it, mess up and look even more stupid. Tell him/her and learn!

– And last but not least, keep an open mind. Some things might not go the way you would do or like, and that’s okay! You learn from that.

Anyway, I had a great time being Liselotte’s intern. If you’d like to ask more, you can always contact me on my Instagram.

Good luck!
xo Nienke

sssh, don’t tell Liselotte I was on Facebook..

And for the Dutchies, 2 videos where we are talking about studying photography at the Art Academie and about the photography jobs we did in June!

♥