Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sydney Walsh. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Sydney, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.

“The arts are taken for granted.” That’s a fact that most people know. The extent of it is what we don’t realize. The clothing you are wearing right now, the device you are reading these words on, the advertisement you just scrolled past, is a product of artistic craftsmanship. Majoring in an art field at the university level is often frowned upon in much of society. It’s not a practical degree. You can’t be a doctor or a lawyer. What do you even do with an a degree in the arts? Well, you can create textiles like the ones both you and the trend setters wear. You can design a computer just like the one you’re using right now, or even better. You can photograph a billboard that one million people will see while stuck during rush hour. Everything we see, hear, touch, taste and smell has been influenced by some element of design, color theory, extraordinary technical skill and at least one idea. Then why are students not taught the importance of art? There would be no music, movies, books or entertainment without art. Students need not be prodigies of painting and sculpture. They need to recognize that art breeds imagination, collaboration, challenges, frustration, passion, joy and so much more. When society teaches youth the vitality of the arts, we will better process current events and communicate with our enemies and friends. This is a key to creating more fulfilling education for the next generation.

Sydney, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Sydney 常娇 Walsh is a visual storyteller born in Changsha, China, who grew up in and is currently based in Florida. She believes photography is a vital medium that removes language barriers and universally personalizes human experiences. She is especially interested in stories about racial identity, cultural and ecological history and the natural environment. She is proficient in English and Spanish. Raised by two chefs, a dancer for ten years and a musician for eight years she uses these experiences in her vision as a storyteller. During her free time she enjoys experimenting with analog processes, taking her cat to the beach and making vegetarian dishes.

Commissions and features of her work can be seen in NPR, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, AARP Magazine, Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald, Tampa Bay Times, Lenscratch, AsAmNews, Asian American Journalists Association and more.​​​​​​​

She graduated in May 2022 with a BFA in Photojournalism and a double minor in Spanish and Latin American Languages, Literatures & Cultures and Fine Arts & Art History from Corcoran School of the Arts & Design at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. During her time in university she was the Sports Photo Editor at the independent student-run newspaper The GW Hatchet, where she assigned staff photographers for the sports beat and photographed campus sports, news, culture and features. In 2021, she was selected as an AAJA Voices Fellow, where she collaborated with a team of student journalists and editors across the U.S. to research, report and photograph a story about legislation that mandated Asian American and Pacific Islander history curriculum in U.S. public schools. She was also a Communications Intern at Rails-to-Trails Conservancy where she built an online photo archive of over a decade’s worth of images, organized by location and included SEO keyword search. She also photographed trails in her home state of Florida for the non-profit’s internal use. In the summer of 2020, she completed a photojournalism and social media internship with AsAmNews, a non-profit news organization committed to reporting on news, events, people and issues within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. In the fall, she was selected to attend the Eddie Adams Workshop XXXIII. Shortly after graduating, she completed a seven-month photo and video internship at the Miami Herald where she documented news, features, sports, arts and culture, as well as longer enterprise stories, for the daily print newspaper and its Spanish edition el Nuevo Herald.

Her work has been recognized by College Photographer of the Year, National Press Photographers Association, Women Photojournalists of Washington, Lenscratch, The Curious Society, Columbia Scholastic Press Association and American Institute of Graphic Arts, among others.

Sydney is based in southeast Florida and available to travel for assignments.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I knew that photo books existed earlier on in my journey. I knew you could find catalogs of artists’ works at libraries and bookstores. I didn’t know that a niche part of the photography industry centers their practice around making zines, monographs and other print publications. This is the modern-day portfolio that anyone can make and have physical copies of their work within a digitally-saturated society. Having this resource earlier on in my career would have led me to inspiration and challenging new mediums sooner.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

During my third year of university I applied to forty-five summer internships and jobs. I was on the Dean’s List, I was passionate and focused, I lived and breathed photo. My goal that year was to do at least one photo related activity each day. I successfully did that. On average, I spent five hours a day working on my portfolio, resume or cover letters, always ensuring each version was an improvement from the previous one. I got two interviews. The rest I received an email template that said in some way that I was not selected for the position. Or, I never heard back at all. I sent follow-up emails to any hiring manager I could find. No response. My application didn’t move forward in the hiring process after those two interviews either. Then one of the jobs reached out again saying a spot opened up and they wanted to hire me. I took the job and spent a summer mentoring middle schoolers for a documentary they made about environmental racism. I received an award for “Most Passionate” teacher by my colleagues. After that I was back to square one and started applying to internships again for the following summer. I only applied to three before I received an offer that year. The offer I received was from an internship I applied to three times already. That initial ten-week internship got extended to a seven-month internship. My boss told me I was the best intern they ever had the twenty years they had been there. All those rejections pushed me to prove myself. I was discouraged after every email telling me I didn’t get a position. I constantly compared myself to my peers. I spent almost two years of my university years online due to the pandemic. The list of tribulations goes on. Persistence was key. I kept applying to every opportunity. Eventually, something worked out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sydneywalshphoto.com/overview
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sydneywalshphoto/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydney-walsh-553977169/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sydwalshphoto

Image Credits
All images © Sydney Walsh. All rights reserved.