In November 2018, UC Berkeley student and photographer Erin Haar‘s hometown was devastated by a mass shooting and multiple wildfires. Instead of retreating, she decided to tell the story of how she and her community dealt with the trauma and subsequently healed.

Haar won the Fujifilm Students of Storytelling competition for this work, which focuses on the five stages of grief and how someone gets through them.

Fujifilm created the contest to identify the next generation of U.S. storytellers, and to provide them with Fujifilm X Series or GFX system gear to bring their vision to life.

Rangefinder: What interests you as a storyteller?

Erin Haar: What interests me as a storyteller is seeing the mental and emotional experience of being human. Stories that I’m drawn to often do this by focusing on a single individual, or at least, a single individual at a time, rather than trying to tell the story of a whole population all at once. I really like features or interviews that make understanding the inner thoughts and feelings of one person or a few people more accessible. 

Rf: What stories do you want to share through your work? 

EH: The stories I want to share through my work are varied but they all generally focus on human thoughts or emotions. I would love to be able to continue my current project and share stories of others across America impacted by gun violence. I’d also love to do pieces on mental health or food culture. 

Rf: Describe the evolution of your style and approach. How has it changed over time?

EH: I think when you start out, especially when you start photography as a young teenager like I did, you don’t really have a style. Or at least, I didn’t. Instead, I was mimicking other people’s styles or just trying to follow the assignment that my high school photography teacher had given. As a freshman in college, I worked for my college’s student newspaper, The Daily Californian, so my style was very photojournalistic and simpler than the photos I make now. Since my sophomore year, I’ve been experimenting with different techniques in Photoshop and creating surrealist and vibrant composite images. This Fujifilm project has allowed me a bit of a break from that, and has shown me that I can still tell the stories I want to without having to spend four to five hours on an image every time I want to create something. Now, the impact of my photos comes with the stories of the people and things I’m photographing, and it’s been great to experiment with new ways of storytelling. 

Rf: What are the key things you have learned or done that have helped you advance your career since you began photographing? 

EH: This isn’t really something technical that I’ve learned, but I’ve come to recognize that if you are putting your work out there for the sole purpose of gaining attention, it won’t happen. I actually got selected for this Fujifilm opportunity while I was taking a break from posting on Instagram, rather than during a time in which I was obsessing over engagement. I’m still working on how I view my work through the lens of social media, but this project has helped me a lot with that. In the end, it’s not the amount of likes that matters with these photos. It’s that fact that the stories of people in my hometown are still being told. I hope one day to be able to view all my photos with that mindset. 

Rf: What is the most helpful piece of advice you’ve received and followed?

EH: As cheesy as it sounds, I think the best advice I’ve received in regards to photography is the reassurance that I am good enough to be part of this space. Lots of friends have told me this, but one of the Students of Storytelling mentors, Varina, actually encouraged a lot of us on a call recently. Hearing about the moments in which she felt the imposter syndrome that a lot of us feel right now was really comforting, and it shifted my perspective. I try to recognize that my ability to share people’s stories is unique and powerful. I’m still working on that, but I’m much more confident than I was a few years ago. 

Rf: How has photographic education affected your career and development as a photographer? 

EH: Without photographic education, I would 100 percent not be in this position that I am now. I’m a creative person, and I don’t doubt that I would have ended up in some other creative field, but the ability to learn about photography within a high school curriculum for two years impacted my trajectory so much. I am still so grateful for my high school photography teacher, Mrs. Ravitch, and the opportunity that I had to take those classes that so many don’t get in a traditional high school setting. I’m also grateful for the other students at the Daily Californian and other creators on online platforms like YouTube for the education they have given me as well. 

Rf: In what ways do you see your photo essay on mass shooting and wildfires in Southern California informing future shoots? 

EH: I see this current photo essay hopefully expanding my capabilities as a storyteller and contributing to movements against gun violence. After finishing this project, I want to connect with others who have experienced what my hometown has and feature their stories as well. I also hope I can apply this format of storytelling (combining photography and interviews) to other subject matters as well, as it’s been incredible to feel like I can make an impact that way. 

Rf: How have your studies affected your approach to photography and storytelling? 

EH: I’m an American Studies major, which at Berkeley is a self-designed major. My concentration is Race, Media and Place, and my classes have focused on a variety of historical mediums. I’ve really enjoyed learning in this way, but present-day photography kind of gets left out, so I’ve made the effort to keep learning that on my own or through extracurriculars. I’m taking my Journalism Minor classes this summer, which has taught me a lot about the current social context in which photography and photojournalism sits. My approach to storytelling has shifted because of this, as I want to make sure I represent people in the way they want to be represented. Though my hometown is not very diverse, and though that is where my project takes place, I have still tried to apply this mentality to my shoots and interviews with local community members, and I hope to do this even more so in the future with more diverse models and subjects. 

Rf: Can you tell us about your submission to Fujifilm’s Students of Storytelling program?

EH: I had been thinking about doing a project related to my hometown for the past year or so, but I didn’t know how I would put it together until working with Fujifilm. My submission to Fujifilm’s Students of Storytelling was actually a bit different than how my project has taken form now. A lot of my pitch was focused on explaining what happened in my hometown of Thousand Oaks, California. For those unfamiliar with the story, in November of 2018 there was a mass shooting at a local bar immediately followed by devastating wildfires. The idea for the rest of my pitch sprung from the restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic. I had originally thought this project would be completely self-portraits using color to distinguish different stages of grief. However, I have been able to safely travel home for a few weeks and conduct Zoom interviews and socially distanced photo shoots. So my project has now shifted to include the stories of other community members either through interview quotes or photos. 

Rf: What works have you produced with your new Fujifilm systems?  

EH: With my new Fujifilm system, I have been able to make a lot of photos I’m proud of. My project has five main chapters, one for each stage of grief, and each one is marked by a self- portrait and a small story about my own experience. Each chapter will then also feature multiple stories from my folks in my hometown. Before I traveled home, I created all of the self-portraits I needed in my apartment in Berkeley with the Fujifilm system. Since I’ve been back in Thousand Oaks, I’ve taken portraits, landscape photos and more for this project. 

Rf: Where do you see your work going from here?  

EH: After this project, I see my work becoming more and more grounded in storytelling techniques. In the past, I’ve relied a lot on composting in Photoshop to tell the story I felt or thought in a certain moment. Now, I want to make an effort to scale my compositing back, in favor of expressing the stories of others through interviews and impactful photo shoots. Before taking on this project, I never took the time to plan a project that involved interviewing others. That’s something I definitely want to continue in the future. 

Rf: Which brand, media outlet or agency is your ideal client? And why? 

EH: I guess my answer to this question would be NPR, because I really love their multimedia approaches as of late and I grew up listening to NPR radio. However, if I’m honest, this isn’t a question I think about often. I’m incredibly aware of the fact that people’s careers go in so many different directions these days, and I don’t want to pigeonhole myself into one place or space as my ideal.  

Visit the official Fujifilm Students of Storytelling site for more information about the complete program. Follow @erinhaar to stay up to date with Erin Haar.