Charlotte Wilson is an English student from the University of Birmingham with an exceptional talent; when the 20 year-old is not analysing shakespeare she is doing what she does best, taking photos.
When asked about how she developed her talent and passion for photography, it appears that Charlotte was ‘already a photography geek at the age of ten’. She learnt the basics from her dad during a round-the-world family holiday, mastering composition techniques such as the rule of thirds as a young child. As a teenager Charlotte embarked on a World Challenge trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, developing a fascination with wildlife photography. This was the moment that she decided she wanted to take her hobby more seriously. ‘It wasn’t with a professional camera, but when I was on the Galapagos Islands I was trying to get a picture of some of the native birds and a local woman decided to feed them some fish. They ended up flying inches in front of our faces to get at the fish. That was pretty cool’.
Although she claims that her favourite thing to shoot is wildlife, sport comes a close second. If you have ever attended a university sporting event you will probably have seen Charlotte darting around the pitch, trying to dodge the ball whilst capturing the perfect shot. She holds the position of Photography Editor for Redbrick, specialising in the sports section. Her role involves sorting through all the photos that have been taken by herself and the rest of the photographers and selects the best ones for the paper. Charlotte has shown such promise as an upcoming sports photographer that she has managed to get hold of a premiership football media pass, enabling her to capture some incredible shots of prestigious athletes.
Knowing very little about photography myself, I am chuffed when I manage to take non-blurry photos on a night out. Looking at Charlotte’s photos I can see that they are on a completely different level. There is something so powerful about the moments she captures and her photographs really make me believe that a picture captures a thousand words. One of my favourites has to be this shot of the Birmingham Lions as they make their way onto the pitch; it perfectly captures the spirit and pride of our university athletes.
When asked if she sees a future in photography she seems optimistic: ‘I’ve managed to get to some Premiership games, had my photos of the recent Defend Education protest in national online media reports and I’ve done some work at The Guardian, so I think that’s a pretty good start!’
Despite all her recent success Charlotte remains incredibly modest and genuinely surprised that her talents are in such high demand. She is always the first to volunteer at charity events, both in Birmingham and further afield. In the past year these have ranged from bar crawls and naked charity calendars organised by Carnival Rag, to the Action for Kids city volleyball in Canary Wharf.
Charlotte has had no formal training and is entirely self-taught, making her abilities even more impressive; I have a feeling we will be seeing big things from Charlotte in the future.
If you wish to contact Charlotte about a photography request, she can be reached by email at charlotte.emily.wilson@ntlworld.com.
For more of her work, take a look at her flickr or facebook page.