Here's how I ended up
teaching people to see
Here's how I ended up
teaching people to see
with me
The Beginning
The Beginning
My name is David Hessemer, and for more than forty years, photography has been
my passport to adventure.
What started as a fascination with cameras became a lifelong obsession with people, places, and stories. It's taken me from commercial assignments with global brands, where I spent 15 years as the main photographer for Nike, to remote villages in the Amazon, to humanitarian projects across Africa, to conservation work in the American West.
I never set out to become a teacher. I just wanted to keep chasing stories.
The Turn I Didn't See Coming
A few years into all of this, my old high school asked me to come back and give a TED Talk.
When it was over, they offered me a job teaching photography to high schoolers.
I said no. Thanks, but no thanks. I had a life full of assignments and adventures; the last thing I wanted was a classroom.
But something kept nagging at me. What if I didn't just teach photography? What if I built teams of student photographers,
trained them the way I'd trained myself, and took them out into the world with me?
So I went back and said: I'm in. Whatever you need, we'll do it.
That was 10 years ago. I've now taught more than 900 students, and I've watched something happen to almost every single one of them that I never expected.
What I Actually Discovered
I thought I was teaching photography. Composition, light, the technical stuff.
But somewhere along the way, I realized the greatest gift photography ever gave me wasn't the photographs. It was the people. The conversations around campfires at 2am on a trip. The strangers who became lifelong friends. The moments that reminded me how connected we all actually are.
The camera was never the destination. It was just the tool that taught me to pay attention.
Once I understood that, I stopped thinking of myself as an instructor.
I started thinking of myself as a guide, a Sherpa who'd spent decades walking this trail, now helping other people find their own way up it.
Stories That Changed Me
A few moments from the last 10 years that I still think about constantly:
The Goats in Kenya
A few years ago, my students' photos helped provide 156 goats to a village in Kenya, supporting a women's empowerment program.
A year later, we returned to see kids in school, families thriving, and a community changed—all because of a few photographs.
A year and a half later, one of those girls became the first in her family to graduate from college. She invited me and Martin Luther King Jr.'s grandson, who funded her education, to celebrate on Zoom. That's the power of learning to truly see through a camera.
The Wildfire
One of my students lost his home in a wildfire. He borrowed a camera, went back to where his house used to stand, and photographed it.
That image went on to win Best of Show.
I think about that photo more than almost any other one my students have ever taken, not because of the award, but because of what it proves: you don't need the perfect equipment or the perfect moment. You need to see clearly, even when everything around you is falling apart.
Iceland
We took a group of students to Iceland to make a music video for the Down Syndrome community, full production, a concert pianist and composer from Santa Barbara, a 100-year-old church we lit up at night, the whole thing.
It ended up being one of the most powerful projects we've ever done. And it happened because a group of teenagers decided their photography could be about something bigger than themselves.
Stories That Changed Me
A few moments from the last 10 years that I still think about constantly:
The Goats in Kenya
A few years ago, my students' photos helped provide 156 goats to a village in Kenya, supporting a women's empowerment program.
A year later, we returned to see kids in school, families thriving, and a community changed—all because of a few photographs.
A year and a half later, one of those girls became the first in her family to graduate from college. She invited me and Martin Luther King Jr.'s grandson, who funded her education, to celebrate on Zoom. That's the power of learning to truly see through a camera.
The Wildfire
One of my students lost his home in a wildfire. He borrowed a camera, went back to where his house used to stand, and photographed it.
That image went on to win Best of Show.
I think about that photo more than almost any other one my students have ever taken, not because of the award, but because of what it proves: you don't need the perfect equipment or the perfect moment. You need to see clearly, even when everything around you is falling apart.
Iceland
We took a group of students to Iceland to make a music video for the Down Syndrome community, full production, a concert pianist and composer from Santa Barbara, a 100-year-old church we lit up at night, the whole thing.
It ended up being one of the most powerful projects we've ever done. And it happened because a group of teenagers decided their photography could be about something bigger than themselves.
Why I Built See It Photo
Here's what I believe, after 40 years of doing this:
When people learn to see the world differently, they begin to live differently.
I didn't build See It Photo to teach you how to use a camera. Cameras are easy.
I built it to help you notice, the light, the story, the moment before it happens, the same way I had to learn to notice, one photograph at a time, over four decades.
My goal was never just to teach photography. It's to help you discover stories worth telling, a community worth belonging to, and a purpose worth pursuing.
Photography is the vehicle. Story is the thread. Transformation is the destination.
Where You Come In
I can't promise you'll win Best of Show or end up on a Zoom call with Martin Luther King Jr.'s grandson.
But I can promise this: if you're willing to learn how to see, everything about your photography, and maybe more than your photography, starts to change.
That's the whole reason I built the Discovery. Not to sell you anything. Just to help you understand exactly where you're starting, so I can
help you take the next real step from there.
See It Photo is everything I've learned, built into a journey you can walk too.
Helping photographers learn to see, tell meaningful stories, and capture the moments that matter.
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