Person Of The Week: Stephanie Khounlo

Junior Stephanie Khounlo has the ability to capture moments in time. She has been a photographer since her childhood and now practices her talent in Photography Three. Khounlo is known by many of her friends as an amazing photographer because of her renowned skill for portraits and artistic photography. Altogether though, she does photography mostly for her own enjoyment.

“I’ve always really liked it as a kid,” Khounlo said. “My dad always gave me his camera, he let me shoot and it’s just what I’ve been doing. It’s just really fun, I really like it.”

One reason Khounlo enjoys photography is her ability to incorporate creativity into her pictures. While some of her photography is definite, some of her work is more abstract.

“You get to do a little bit of crazy stuff,” Khounlo said. “You’re like, ‘oh, it makes sense, don’t worry, I promise–I’m a photographer’.”

Khounlo’s favorite type of photography is portraits. Sometimes, she arranges photo shoots with her friends, in which they pose as models for specific pictures.

“I do portraits, so I really like shaping people,” Khounlo said. “It’s kind of funny because I’m actually not good at talking to people, like interacting, but I shoot people really well.”

Khounlo devotes a significant amount of her time to photography, but for the time being, most of it is in school.

“It’s a good 80 percent of my week if I don’t have homework, because I’m going to go shoot and if I shoot film, then I have to go develop that film,” Khounlo said. Once I have that film, I have to go put it in the darkroom and make contact sheets and make prints out of those. If I do digital cameras, then I have to go through it and make sure it’s on my laptop, process all of those and make sure they’re good. So it’s a lot of work.”

Even out of school, Khounlo dedicates her free time to photography. Over the summer Khounlo had a chance to take outdoor pictures on a trip out of the country.

“I tried to go out with my friends to do photo shoots, but we never had time,” Khounlo said. “Once I went on vacation, there were just so many pictures and I [ended up] filling two SD cards. It was a good time.”

Because of her interest in photography, Khounlo has considered pursuing it as a career but has been deterred by the limited available opportunities.

“I’ve thought about it, but it’s kind of hard because art is not a great thing to do with your life,” Khounlo said. “I would do it if I knew I had a chance.”

Khounlo hopes to enjoy her own photography this year, along with her assigned schoolwork.

“I’ve been trying to make more personal time,” Khounlo said. “But since school started, it’s just for school.”

Khounlo is planning on taking Photography Four next year. Until then she will continue to enjoy the creativity and ‘craziness’ of photography.

“Don’t worry too much about trying to figure out if your photography looks good,” Khounlo said, “because it’s subjective. It’s just art.”