Digital Silver Imaging

School: Massachusetts College of Art (On exchange from Edinburgh College of Art)
Year: Senior
Major: Photography BFA program
Internship Supervisor: Stephen Tourlentes, Massachusetts College of Art

Q: Why did you seek an internship?
T: Being from the UK I needed a way to stay in the States over the summer. An internship was a good way to go about doing that. I also wanted to get a handle on printing my own images through a photo lab and to find out what the internal workings of a photography would be like.

I also thought that my experience working at Digital Silver Imaging would help me get into the industry if I needed a job.

Q: What kind of work did you do at DSI?
T:  Because of my background mostly digital work such as; color matching, scanning, production workflow, and a little maintenance of the printing machinery.

Q: What kind of person would do well at an internship at Digital Silver Imaging?
A: Someone that says “yes” a lot. (laughs) It was fairly straight forward work, a lot of computer, a lot of spotting, whatever is needed. You have to be willing to put in a bit of time, I worked between 15 and 30 hours per week depending on what was needed. It is summer though so this is all I had on my schedule.

Q: What did you hope to get out of your internship at DSI?
T: I didn’t really have any expectations coming in, overall its been a very good experience. I did hope to learn Photoshop in a more intensive way and that did happen. I wanted to understand what customers would ask and what was wrong and right as far as post production of imagery. Christopher Bowers was a great teacher. I can now say that working in Photoshop comes instinctively. Working on big jobs you have to be efficient, I know that this will carry over to my own work. I learned a lot of valuable tips on how to do things to save time.

Q: Did anything surprise you?
T: Yes, the Belgium job was an eye-opener. Color matching a large number of prints, working on a series, how much organization was important to completing the job. Also working with Annie Morrow on finishing the prints, matting and mounting, and how to efficiently do things. All those little insights that come with experience. I know I’ll use those tips to my benefit in the future.

Q: What kind of photography do you do?
T: I do a variety of types of photography, mostly in studio. I like subjects that don’t talk back.

Q: What’s ahead in your future?
T: I will be returning to Edinburgh and graduate in the spring. I hope to travel after and eventually go on to get a graduate degree.

Q: Any advise for future DSI interns?
T: Don’t complain, stick with it, the answers don’t come straight away. It’s about putting in the man hours, that’s how you learn. Ask a lot of questions even if you feel like you are being annoying at times.

Tasos did a great job at DSI and we will miss him. We are sure that this young man is going to do great things.