By Rachele Terranova
At first glance, you wouldn’t assume Calvin Scott is still a senior at SCAD. With a CV made up of high profile internships and a list of accolades coveted by many photographers, he seems like he’s already found his footing in the wide world of professional photography. In reality, after months of persistently chasing down an internship that didn’t quite exist at Studio Platon, he and his partner packed their belongings and made their way to New York City.
Though his background is rooted in charcoal and ink-based graphic arts, he currently attends SCAD to complete his B.F.A in Photography this June. What led him to this point was anything but a normal college experience. In the spring of 2018, Scott received word that his proposal to intern under Platon Antoniou was accepted. His next step was to make the move— the big move. On his first day, Platon himself had no idea that he was hired. “I remember him looking at me and saying ‘I dont know you’ and of course I thought someone would have told him I would be working there. I later found out it was a test on how I would react to Platon,” Scott said. It’s fair to say he passed the test, and completed the internship.
Scott opted to continue his education through SCAD eLearning after experiencing that kind of opportunity. So, New York it was. He followed up his previous internship with another one, then another one and one more after that. He not only landed four separate internships with four different studios by June of the following year (2019), but he also worked alongside very influential photographers such as MILK, Mark Seliger and Annie Leibovitz.
With an impressive list of contacts and features in PDN, American Photography and Photographer’s Forum, Scott’s most impressive traits don’t come off of his CV. It’s often easy to speculate that young artists are handed their success, but this is not the case with Scott. A quick move to NYC created struggles for Scott and his partner. “Being an unpaid intern 40 hours a week is not easy, it comes down to choosing to pay for food or a subway ticket, and you have to get to work so you do what you have to,” Scott said.
Scott encouraged students to reach out. He sent an email to Platon’s studio every couple of months, and essentially “created a position” for himself because Platon didn’t previously hire interns. “I finally sent a third email introducing myself once again and attached three of my images this time which I hadn’t done before. I heard back within an hour,” Scott said.
Scott also gave another tip. “Keep making yourself seen, make people see your name enough they recognize it. Make contacts with contest judges, email other photographers, always be the one to volunteer to get the coffee! If you go get coffee for a shoot (for the clients too) then that is automatic face time where you can reiterate once again who you are— people will eventually remember,” Scott said.
Now, Scott is back at SCAD for his final quarter. He isn’t sure what’s next aside from making work, submitting it and being persistent. Scott shared that he often gets approached with questions such as, “Who are you going to work for next?” and even “Are you Calvin? Aren’t you the one who interned for ____?” by younger students due to his employment record. Scott admitted he doesn’t want to be someone’s intern anymore. Instead it’s time to make his own name in the industry.
“I really don’t know what I’m doing more than anyone else. I know how lucky I am to have worked for these people and learned so much from these experiences but in the end I’m still learning and unsure of what’s next just like everyone else,” Scott said.
