Hello, I’m Andrew Craft, the sole photojournalist at the Fayetteville Observer. You’ve probably seen my name under a number of photographs over the years. I landed at the paper in 2005 and have been photographing everything you could possibly think of in those years.
When I’m out and about doing my photo thing, I occasionally get approached by people and asked a question or two about my career or photography. Here are a few of the less weird questions.
How did you get into photography?
Way back in 1992, just as I was barely about to graduate high school, and I mean barely, my mom bought me a Canon Rebel 35mm film camera and I started taking photos of my fellow skateboarders in Southern California. It was at that time that I realized I needed to start thinking about what the hell I wanted to do with my life. I decided to sign up for classes at Riverside Community College, which included a few photography classes.
After taking several photo classes and getting married, followed by a couple of moves and then a divorce, I came to realize I preferred a documentary style of photography — photographing the world as it is. So, a friend suggested going into photojournalism with the end goal being to get a newspaper job, since it was a steady paycheck.