This year marked the founding of Jesuit’s Photography Club. The Photography Club is a place for Jesuit students who are interested in photography to take interesting photos and compete in competitions. It is also a place for budding photographers to sharpen their skills with the help of a community of other Jesuit photographers.

Nicholas Lyons ’23 is a junior, but all the way back in his freshman year he took Photography 1. In this class, he developed a love for photography, but with a busy and taxing schedule he did not have time to join Jesuit’s Advanced Digital Media class to pursue photography during the school day. Because of this scheduling conflict, Nicholas had to find a solution, so he founded Jesuit’s photography club.

“I started the photography club probably because […] I didn’t have enough space in my classes to take digital media,” said Nicholas. “So, I decided to start a photography club so kids like me who couldn’t have photography in their schedule or kids who wanted to expand their photography [skills] could join the club.”

Nicholas also started the club with two hopes.

“I hope that [members] learn to appreciate photography and I hope that they learn how fun photography actually is,” Nicholas said. “I do hope this club is carried on. I hope I leave my mark here.”

Dr. Madden, the teacher of Photography and Advanced Digital Media at Jesuit, also hopes that students at Jesuit can expand their skills and learn more about the art of photography.

“I am glad there’s a photography club at Jesuit,”Dr. Madden said. “Because it lets students who either are not in the class or who were in the class but want to continue with their photography and sharpen their skills, and it gives them a space to do that.”

The real question is how the Photography Club plans to go about this goal of spreading the love and skills of photography to the Jesuit community. Nicholas believes this can be answered through his club’s mission statement.

“I would say the mission of this club is to make photography fun and expand it around Jesuit,” Nicholas said. “I hope that [members] learn to appreciate photography and I hope that they learn how fun photography actually is.”

“Fun,” and it’s association with photography, is an idea that Nicholas also tries to encourage through friendly competitions, field trips, and a very manageable commitment that he hopes will make the club accessible to anyone who has an interest in continuing with or beginning the study of photography.

“We plan to do a lot of photography contests and go on a photography field trip somewhere to take spring photos,” Nicholas said. “There is not a lot of commitment […] We usually meet once a week for about 30 minutes.”

One member of the club, Cole Arnold ’25, would highly recommend this club to anyone in the Jesuit community.

“I really only started photography this year in Dr. Madden’s class,” Cole said. “And that you don’t need any prior experience because it is just a fun place to hang out and take photos with your friends and get better at photography.”

Dr. Madden also expresses just how great of an art form photography is and hopes that students can learn about it outside of the classroom and really develop a passion for it.

“With photography there is not an end to what you can learn. So if you think you have figured it all out, you definitely have not,” Dr. Madden said. “I’m just hoping that they share the wealth of resources that they each have.”

Anyone who is interested in learning the art of photography, whether they have experience or not, can show up to the Photography club meetings in CH102 on Tuesdays during community period to learn about just how fun photography can be.