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At 15 Sydney Harkins is driven to work for National Geographic.

Sydney Harkins is running down a train track. Maybe she is running away. Then she’s throwing pebbles into a lake. Maybe she is lonely. It is through these experiences that the 15-year-old realized the depth of her interest in photography.

She was recruited by her aunt, LSU photography student Leah Duvic, who needed a model for a class assignment. The assignment was to portray a secret. Duvic chose one that read, “I always wanted to run away.”

“I thought it was powerful to be able to show an emotion, to show that secret,” Harkins says.

It’s been about a year since then, and Harkins’ spark for imagery remains strong. She leisurely strolls through Spanish Town one Saturday morning, photographing a cat sitting in a window, then finding a curious brick wall. She backs away from the wall, feels the mortar that isn’t flush with the bricks.

Photography is art, a whole experience, she says. But the Baton Rouge Magnet High School freshman is hungry for challenges that extend beyond the school photo club. Harkins doesn’t have any formal training, just help from her aunt and other photographers who drop her advice on occasion. “I noticed that she had an eye and was taking decent shots with a point-and-shoot,” her father, Joel Phillips, says. Last Christmas, Harkins upgraded to a Nikon D60. Since then, she’s been shooting more and taking initiative to sell her photographs. Old, abandoned structures or objects are among Harkins’ favorite subjects, but inspiration can be anywhere. “I find inspiration in objects that show emotions to me,” she says. “Once I shot a lizard, because I thought it was cool. There wasn’t much emotion there, but maybe someone is a lizard fanatic and they’ll buy it.”

Harkins held her first solo show in March at Bistro Byronz. Phillips printed 500 4-by-6 colored information cards about the show. “I gave Syd half and I kept the other half. She took care of the high-school crowd, and I handled the adults,” says Phillips. “You can’t be an artist without promoting yourself.”

For Harkins, this promotion means stepping outside of her sometimes-shy personality. “I approached people and just encouraged them to come to my show,” she says. Turns out, it was a hit. Nine of the 17 featured prints sold.

Harkins’ still life blends fire-scorched pieces with Arden Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens.

Harkins is a regular at local art shows and events with her dad, and now that she’s making a name for herself, she is encouraging her friends to get involved, too. The response at Bistro Byronz was a thrill, but the opinions of her friends still matter most. “It’s great if someone who doesn’t know me tells me that they like my work, but it means so much more if one of my friends comments on it and says they think I am going somewhere with all of this.”

Her dream is to work for National Geographic. “I don’t know exactly how I’m going to do it, but the way they photograph is so interesting,” Harkins says. “And the photography is diverse. I want that.” The precocious artist wants to experience different cultures and perhaps even write about them, too.

But for now, she’s living life as a teenager who listens to KLSU for new indie music, hangs with friends and shops whenever she has leftover dough. She sold 20 prints last year, and her new work can be seen regularly at Brew Ha-Ha. Harkins used the profit from her Bistro Byronz debut to invest in her work, buying two new lenses, paper and ink. She’s a teenager though, so she scored a pair of canvas sneakers from Urban Outfitters, too. myspace.com/sharkins