From: Carl Weese (cweese@earthlink.net)
Date: 10/19/01-06:53:52 AM Z
> She needed to know how to
> change the curve of her film by changing the film speed and
> development times, but they absolutely refuse to discuss such things
> in my program! So students end up whispering questions about it to
> me in the hallways.
>
> I don't understand this. Is this an over-reaction to the days of
> Ansel Adams, Minor White, etc?
Shannon,
It sounds more like a complete lack of exposure to craft and craft
discipline. About ten years ago I taught a couple college photography
classes and was dismayed to find that nearly all the students had something
I would consider a sort of learning disability: they had no idea what
craftsmanship was. As though they had never seen a skilled carpenter at
work, never considered how a master machinist has to practice to be able to
use a lathe, never seen a skilled backhoe operator dig a ditch half an inch
from a vulnerable building. They were plenty bright enough to get an
intellectual understanding of various photographic techniques, but they had
no concept of physically applying them with the degree of accuracy or
repeatability needed to get decent predictable results. They often 'saw'
really interesting images, but little things like shadow detail or
appropriate focus decisions seemed almost entirely random, even when they
swore they were trying hard to do it right. They just had no personal
experience of working to even a moderately demanding craft standard.
Now, ten years later, some of those kids are probably teaching art
somewhere.
---Carl
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