Re: Has this been done before? Really? Show me.

About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

From: Cactus Cowboy (cactus@tritel.net)
Date: 08/24/02-07:16:54 AM Z


Dear Diana,

I didn't mean to suggest that you (or anyone else on this list) had
personally "shamed or brow-beaten" students. It sounds like you're a
dedicated teacher who takes her job seriously.

Thanks for the response.

Best regards,
Dave in Wyoming

----- Original Message -----
From: "Diana H. Bloomfield" <dlhbloom@mindspring.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca>
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2002 11:57 PM
Subject: Re: Has this been done before? Really? Show me.

> Since I'm the one who first mentioned the ever-present sunset and pet
> photos I consistently see in classes, I felt compelled to respond to
> your comments. Just for the record, I don't believe I have personally
> ever "shamed or brow-beaten" a student into not photographing these
> subjects--nor any subject for that matter.
>
> My earlier point, which I'll try to better articulate for you, was that
> students often continue trotting out familiar work (familiar work for
> them), simply because they know they can do it and do it really well.
> Often, when one is first starting out, he/she will receive
> praise--well-deserved, I'm sure-- just as you did with your
> "lichen-encrusted . . dazzling . . . surreal. . . otherworldly . . .
> sunlight dancing throughout the image" waterpocket photo. They've
> received all that approval, validation, and praise and want to continue
> doing so. So sometimes that means they literally keep making the same
> picture over and over and over. Now, that's understandable, and there's
> nothing inherently wrong with that. However, for the semester that I
> have them in my class, I'd like to try to challenge them as well as give
> them the confidence to know they can take some risks and do more--even
> if that "more" is simply, as you say, to "breathe new life into overdone
> subjects." And, again, when I speak of "overdone," I really am referring
> to a subject matter that is overdone by the student himself. I could
> care less what's being done or overdone anywhere else.
>
> Also, I am speaking about a group of beginning photography students
> here--clearly not the "sophisticated" group of photographers others have
> talked about teaching. These students really do want to know and learn
> more than simply what they've already been doing. (I know this, because
> they tell me.) That's one reason they sign up for the course. This
> beginning course is not required, and I don't give grades. The students
> run the gamut from undergraduates to graduate students to the older,
> non-University community.
>
> I'd also just like to say that one of the first things I tell my
> students--on the first day of class--is that each of us has our own
> separate history, background, experiences, and memories. That alone will
> ensure that you will never be able to make an image like mine, nor to
> "see" as I do, and I'm pretty confident I will never be able to
> photograph or "see" as you do. That is an absolute given.
>
> One of the first assignments I give in this beginning class is to send
> my students to a local park, a rose garden. I send them all there, not
> because it's a particularly fascinating landscape; in fact, it's very
> small, nothing but roses, a small amphitheatre, a stone wall, and a
> water fountain. That's it. And when they return and show their work
> the following week, not one person has taken the same picture as anyone
> else. And, class after class, students are always so surprised. How can
> that be? They were all out there together, in the same small place, all
> photographing the same thing. Never have I had a class where any one
> student came back with a photograph of that area that was remotely
> similar to anyone else's. That one little assignment nicely drives home
> the idea that we each see and perceive the world in our own unique way.
>
> And not to pat myself too hard on the back here, but my students usually
> leave this beginning class with a new appreciation for, and greater
> confidence in, their own abilities and in photography as an art form.
> (Again, I'm not imagining this. I know this, because they tell me.)
> And if they have one complaint, it is consistently that I wasn't hard
> enough on them.
>
> So if you've read this far, thanks, and I hope this clarified some of my
> earlier statements.
>
> --Diana

(snip, previous postings deleted)


About this list Date view Thread view Subject view Author view

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 09/19/02-11:02:50 AM Z CST