24.11.12

The Student..

After being on both sides of the photographic education for a while now
I am now under the assumption that a large percentage of photography students are often unhappy with their course. Often it is not the course structure itself that is to blame, they are there to learn after all and most schools are very good at this (I think, although some may disagree). What I find is that the students often lack the desire and the inspiration to go out and shoot something, anything, and often they feel like they are being forced to make images of something they are really not interested in.
When I do a landscape workshop there is often a fair bit of walking. (often to a spot I have chosen prior but pretend that I have just found it) During that walk the students very rarely take any pictures, or even look at anything with a photographic eye. They wait for permission to go off and shoot whatever they want (I always tell students if they see anything they like they should shoot it) and this is how it is regarding photographic eduction. 
Photography is about individual interpretations. Thankfully we all see things differently and that, I think, is one of the beautiful things about personal photography.

Students are like a Kinder Surprise. Chocolate eggs all the same. No one is really interested in the sickly chocolate, its the surprise inside that people want to see..

Photography eduction can teach you photography. But it cannot teach you to be a photographer.

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