I am not sure myself that is why I'm fishing for your opinions. What level of education wo...

I think he graduated from university. his friends both have good jobs that need qualifications so I think it's likely that Aki met them while he was at university too

He probably did - most professional photographers need a university degree (I have one myself) and Akihito was new to the profession at the beginning of the manga and was 23 years old - a four year degree would fit that king of time frame

Since the manga is old...i mean it startesd something like 15 yeara ago...i dont think ab university degree was required in japan in order to be a freelance photographer.

I think Akihito barely made it through school (because of his delinquent ways, and got his first scoop/job through Yamazaki and selling that scoop to the paper.

Um, you need at least some education to become a photojournalist. Most papers will not hire someone who has not been taught. Aki has his own darkroom, SLR cameras and knowledge of lighting/film and how to catch a good image, and you need some classes for that. I took photography classes for four years, so I know how competitive the journalism industry is, you do not get steady work without the proper know-how and that is very hard to teach yourself, even if someone hands you a scoop.

I am sure that he needs some photography classes - my friend is a fashion photographer and it took four years of intense training at a University to attain her skills, as you need to know what kind of film to use, how to use lighting and framing to best advantage, how to process and develop film/photos (Aki does his own) and how to compose images to best effect. A photojournalist will also need writing/joutnalism classes (even if they don't write stories - though many professionals do) and a photographer would not be able to have a career or repeat business based on one scoop - the field is very competitive. This info comes from conversations with a professional photographer)

There is a device in the performing arts world - 'suspension of disbelief.' This means that Asami can be a badass businessman who speaks 50 languages and shoots people without ramifications, or that Akihito can be a photographer without a degree…and get caught up in black market stuff, and triad stuff etc etc……..it's possible for Akihito.

It is completely possible to be self taught however, this is an alternate universe anyway so ordinary rules don't apply…

It's what 'I think' anyway, I didn't present it as fact.

I thought Takaba's father was also a photographer. Would he not have learned from him? He dotes on a camera his father gave him. When we meet Takaba he is working freelance , selling what he can to who he can. Romance is about having to suspend belief . If Takaba was developing film in that small apart. , he would have passed out. hahahaha.

Sensei has never listed university education for Akihito. In character profiles, she always states Asami's educational background (highest level, Master's degree), but nothing for Akihito in this regard. Because of this omission, I think it can be assumed that Akihito did not attend university.

Akihito was set on becoming a photographer after graduating high school. According to Sensei, he is not self-taught but received training from a photography teacher.

[Ref: http://view.thespectrum.net/series/youre-my-love-prize-in-viewfinder.html?ch=Volume+5&page=195 ]

Y'all are taking the concept of "suspension of disbelief" a little too literally and too far. It doesn't give the creator complete license to disregard reality, but in fact states that the creator must ground the work in a semblance of reality that the audience recognizes to a sufficient extent that they are then willing to suspend their suspicion of the unreality of the work--which they know full well to be unreal.

Asami can speak 50 languages and we believe it because we've been told he has an advanced degree and is highly intelligent. Akihito has sufficient background and training laid out by the author to ground his stated profession in reality. No great leaps of poetic faith required.

The original quote by Samuel Taylor Cooleridge: "It was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith."

Oh god I'm having University flashbacks!

Sensei can do what the hell she likes anyway, it's her baby :P

Anybody may do as they like, but that doesn't mean the result will be successful. Sensei understands the rules and gives the information necessary to create the proper suspension of disbelief. She is a skilled storyteller.

LOL I'm really not arguing against that point though am I. I know, that's why I read it.

Although a university degree is preferred and opens more doors, someone could get low-level freelance jobs without a degree, especially if he had training with a known photographer and his dad's name opened doors. I would not have to suspend much disbelief to accept that Aki might not have a degree.

Akihito is only freelance, and he had a teacher to teach him most stuff, on top of having a father right in the industry... From what I understand he basically takes photos and the guy pays him for them or not if he doesn't like them.

I kind of don't really doubt it, aha. My own experience tells me it's quite possible, it's not like he's an aspiring lawyer :L

I mean, I just found this:
In the end, I decided that if what I really wanted was to do amazing work and eventually get hired in the field, I could instead build my own graduate photojournalism program.
And that's exactly what I did. I attended the Missouri Photo Workshop. I flew to Moscow, Russia and worked for the Moscow Times and did an assignment or two for Paris Match. I took a lighting course. I freelanced as much as possible. And guess what? In 13 months' time (or the end of what would have been my first year in graduate school) I became chief photographer at the Provo (UT) Daily Herald, a 30,000 circulation daily in one of the prettiest spots to live, anywhere. It cost me a fraction of the money a graduate degree would have. I was able to make enough money to pay off all my student loans and buy a new car not long after. It also started me on a career that took me to other newspapers litterally from coast to coast--papers where I was in charge of hiring photographers who had made the decision to go back to school to get graduate degrees in photojournalism.

How I got my own job in the VFX industry was in a quite similar fashion... By self-teaching (LOTS of self-teaching) and putting myself out there with some volunteering work and developing amicable relationships with people from the industry (at bars and stuff, getting to know where they hang out is great intel xD) etc. Certainly not the standard way, but surely the one that worked for me. Got in there in less than a year...

And this, probably xD

Light. Kudos to you. Doubly so. there are many ways to get where you want to go. Very impressive. Not to compare you to an manga charac. but I can see Takaba doing the same thing. He is going to do it his way, learn on the run. Thanks foe sharing. Very interesting.