Quince Orchard Graduate Pursues Photography Career In New York

Before Anna Karadimas could start her dream job as an assistant photo editor at Seventeen magazine in New York City, she had an important stop to make in North Potomac.

A 2006 graduate of , Karadimas paid a visit to the photography teacher who she said first motivated her interest.

"Mrs. Fitzpatrick was a mentor and I think of her four years later," Karadimas told Patch. "Because of her and her help and her work, I am now doing what it is that I love to do."

Karadimas, who has lived in North Potomac since pre-school, said she traces her love of photography back to her first day in Paula Fitzpatrick's photography class her freshman year at Quince Orchard High School.

"The first time I shot film and developed an 8x10 photograph, and I watched the picture come to life in the dark room bath water ... The first time I saw the image morph into shape, that was when I knew I loved it," Karadimas said.

"Mrs. Fitz used me as an example. She held me up there as a standard to the other students. When I saw that other people were as proud of my stuff as I was, I realized that I would make a career out of it or at the very least a hobby."

Karadimas took photography classes each year at Quince Orchard and AP Art as a senior. She entered the University of Maryland as a freshman majoring in business, but by her sophomore year, she said, she missed photography and decided to change her major to fine arts.

She had to play catch up, so she applied for 50 photography internships her junior year, she said.

Luckily she landed one at Seventeen magazine and as she neared college graduation, they offered her a full-time job.

Karadimas success does not surprise her former teacher; Fitzpatrick said she was always motivated and full of talent.

“She stood out all the way along in photography. She had such an eye and such an artistic sense of wanting to do her art and her vision. She had an eye that could see beyond the surface of the assignment," Fitzpatrick told Patch.

But Karadimas said the success did not come easy for her. In early January, she told a class of Fitzpatrick's current photography students at Quince Orchard, that in order to succeed you must work hard and take advantage of all available opportunities.

"I don’t think everyone will succeed in art. But if someone is passionate enough about it, then that’s when they’ll succeed. If they are 100 percent passionate that this is what I want to do and this is what will make me happy," she said.

After graduating from UMd. in December, Karadimas began her job at Seventeen last week. Fitzpatrick said she will continue to follow her success.

"There is probably only one in any one year — and not even every year — that has not just the technical skills, but has the artistic sense. You just know it when you see it. They hear you. They learn from you. They're like sponges. I think Anna was probably the one," Fitzpatrick said.

It is that kind of student, that Fitzpatrick, who has taught at Quince Orchard for ten years, said makes being a teacher worth every frustration.

"There are days where you could tear your hair out, but this is one of those things I call no paycheck required," Fitzpatrick said.

"When a student said you made a difference in their life, no paycheck required. That's the part of my job that I like the most."