omotayo
Full-time mother, part-time painter, storyteller
A short letter to Sarah Everard
On the third of March 2021, just like millions of women, you left your house. I don’t know the details of how your morning went. I don’t know if you woke up and grabbed a coffee, or danced around your room listening to your favourite songs. But If you’re like me and millions of other women, you were probably looking forward to another day and excited for what it might bring your way. It was a beautiful day, and you were planning to spend some part of it with your loved ones. You chose to wear a green rain jacket, navy blue trousers, turquoise and orange trainers and a white beanie hat, just like the one I and other women would wear on rainy days in London. You had dreams, hopes, and ambition and you were highly loved and important to those who knew you. I don’t know how you spent the first part of your day, Sarah, but what I do know is you decided to visit your friend and spend some quality time with them later on. Your parents described you as kind and thoughtful, with the most amazing sense of humour and so I know you must have laughed and joked around with your friend, with no inclination that it will be your last day alive. No inclination that that will be the last time they will you see laugh, and that they will never get to see your bright and beautiful face again. At 9 p.m, you set off on your way home, a time when women wouldn’t normally anticipate any impending danger on what would have been the busy streets of London. After speaking to your boyfriend who you planned to meet the next day, on the streets of Clapham, about 15 miles from where I live, you disappeared.
How to get your photos into Vogue
I’ve been a photographer now for about 3 years, mainly as a hobby, using the medium to tell stories about people I meet. I usually post my photos on Instagram maybe once every 3 months, not posting more is mostly due to laziness. The whole idea of photos for me is generally very fun, but after a while, I pondered on trying out photography as a “side hustle”, and so I set out to look for opportunities available to photographers. As you can already imagine, photography is one very hard industry to get into. It’s highly competitive and you’re competing against really talented individuals with years and years of experience. Whilst you might get a few wedding gigs if you’re lucky, getting into beauty companies or campaigns is one thing that could potentially be a frustrating process for photographers in general. Most of the time photographers will end up giving up on making a sustainable career out of it and end up getting a 9-5 job, to keep the passion for their chosen art form burning out. But one way to make your portfolio stand out in applications, from my experience is to be “vogue approved.”
omotayoPublished about a month ago in Photography
The Waiting Room
There are 4 of us here. And the room is thick with tension. Dark, cold and dripping with tappings of rainwater from the previous night. 2 metres apart, maniac scribbles, loud breaths and thick cigarette smoke. Glances are quick and unsettling, our supervisor looks tired, my legs are weak and my throat thirst from lack of water.
