My name is Aaron Ogren I use a Nikon 3100 camera and I would like to begin this artist statement with a quote from Napoleon Hill. He said that, “strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” With that in mind I would like to explain to you how I have grown as a photographer throughout the two years of learning at Polaris Expeditionary Learning School. When I first started taking photography at Polaris Expeditionary Learning School I was probably the worst photographer in the class. However I kept pushing myself to make better and better work until I finally achieved photo of the week. The photo that earned this achievement with wasn’t that great, but it put me on the path of learning and growth. Because it showed me my strength in taking good photos with good frames, and it showed me my weakness of taking bad photos with bad lighting and editing. Now a days I am still looking at my photos for strengths and weaknesses and fixing them with every photo I take. I also look at my favorite subjects such as lighting, framing, and people, and I try to avoid those and I go for things I have never gone for before. An example of this is one of my most recent photos, a photo of a blanket with no framing and no people. This photo has also taught me that I am not good at taking photos of objects which I will be working on. Overall with every photo I take I learn something new and that allows me to improve as I go.