When I was growing up, I couldn’t wait for Life Magazine to come in the mail. It was the pictures I was anxious to see – the great picture stories by some of the best photojournalists that were the magazine’s hallmark. So, when my best friend in high school asked me to take a photography class with her in our senior year, I agreed. I quickly became enthralled with the beauty of black and white photography. But a couple of classes a week wasn’t enough – I skipped every study hall all year to escape to the cool amber glow of the darkroom on the third floor of Stamford High School. I felt so at home.

I continued taking pictures for the next few years, attending college part time and studying photography at PhotoGraphics Workshop in New Canaan. It was there that I practiced how to see and how to interpret what I saw with my camera. I soon landed a job at a small chain of weekly papers in Westport and was on my way.

I became a daily reader of the Courant just to keep tabs on what all the photographers there were up to. I had long admired their talent and style and the way pictures were displayed. It was a paper that clearly valued visual journalism. A position opened, I applied and got the job. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Now, 23 years later, the Courant is where I’m at home. I still enjoy meeting people and sharing their stories. Every day is a little different, an opportunity to tell a story in a new way. Sometimes it’s a struggle to find that one story-telling moment, but when serendipity occurs, it’s magic.

Cloe can be reached at cpoisson@courant.com.

Read posts by Cloe Poisson.