Open Mike: King of Nuthin'

I wish I had some actual power in the world. I wish I was in charge of something I knew something about. I think I'd be good at it—I have lots of ideas, and I'm good at thinking in terms of systems, the so-called "big picture," rather than just details.

I found myself musing after yesterday's post how I'd set up a graduate program in studio art for photography. To begin with, I'd make it a two-year program (working through the Summer in the middle), because three years is just excessive given the unlikely prospects of a practical job after it's over [wry, even sheepish, grin].

The time would be divided into three units or segments. I'd have students begin by shooting intensively with a film Leica and one 50mm lens in B&W for the first eight months (Sept.–April)—but I wouldn't have them learn darkroom work beyond having it demonstrated to them. They'd use Ilford XP2 with lab support, receiving enlarged proofs of their developed film. In February they'd be asked to add a wide-angle and a moderate telephoto lens to their equipment and spend the last three months of the unit shooting with all three lenses. During this segment we'd concentrate on meaning, and on reportage/documentary approaches, and the main technique emphasis would be on editing skills.

Then we'd switch to...smartphones. From May through the following September, they'd be required to shoot with one of a limited selection of high-end phone cameras. During this unit we'd minimize discussions of technique and review pictures only on screens. This unit would lean heavily on the traditional critique and group discussion method of teaching, and concentrate on personal expression and aesthetic experimentation, with the emphasis placed on visualizing, inventiveness, and creative failure.

In October of the second year, we'd switch to medium-format digital cameras, again with a choice of three or four types, using up to three lenses of the student's choice. For the first half of this unit, we'd concentrate on learning post-processing skills, workflow, and asset management, with the overarching goal of intensively learning printing technique; the concentration until March would be on learning to make prints. During this time we would work intensively on viewing and deconstructing historical photographs, both important and demotic. (Washington D.C. would be a good locale for this program because of its museum and archive resources.) In the last few weeks of that time, working with faculty advisors, students would design a thesis project.

Finally, in March-April-May, still using their medium-format digital cameras, the students would be freed to pursue their vision for their thesis, including, if warranted, traveling to locations of their choice several times for several weeks each time, returning intermittently to edit and print finished prints of their work. The goal would be to produce a portfolio project in the form of 15 to 40 sequenced fine prints in an archival box, along with a custom book of the same pictures in the same sequence.

That's just off the top of my head. Give me a year and I'd refine that brief sketch into a syllabus that would hit on all cylinders.

Like all my other pie-in-the-sky ideas, this stands zero chance of ever happening. But oh boy, it would be effective...and a whole lot of fun. I'd see to both, baby.  :-)

Mike

"Open Mike" is the often off-topic editorial page of TOP. It appears on Wednesdays, if I think of it.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Dan Khong: "In Singapore, at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), all students studying photography for a career go through a darkroom module. These students shoot in B&W film and process all the way to print their pictures out in the traditional darkroom. Of course 99.99% of graduating students will shoot with digital for a living but the school reckons that a basic and hands-on knowledge of traditional photography will enrich their understanding of photography."

Manuel: "With the exception of the smartphone part, the structure and timeline of your graduation programme are not too different from the professional photography courses held by the Portuguese Institute of Photography, but I can see a problem with your daydream programme—cost. Tuition fees would have to be insanely high to cover all expenses. (Unless students brought their own equipment, which would mean they would be millionaires who could afford Leica and Phase One cameras.) I will leave aside my prejudice about smartphones because your idea is a rather clever one. Forgetting about technique to concentrate on expression would be smart. To my knowledge, professional courses don't tend to evaluate subjectivity and expression. They prepare students to master technique, but are oblivious to originality and creativity. So I'd say 'go for it', or 'chase your dream,' but it would be a rather expensive dream. While we're at it, did you think of a scholarship plan? If so, how do I apply?"

Mike replies: You see, the program exists only in my imagination. Therefore cost is not an issue, because in my imagination it never is. It's kind of like television sitcoms, where almost everyone always has enough money or more than enough money (e.g. the spacious NYC apartments on the old show "Friends," or their famous "magic couch," which was somehow always available for them to sit on in the otherwise crowded city café where they liked to hang out), or the movies, where "policemen" can go about leaving trails of bodies in their wake not only with no consequences, but not even any inconvenience to themselves either—that is, it's just one of those things we don't worry about, but dismiss with a wave of the hand.

I have an embarrassing number of projects in my daydreams. For instance, I have a quite detailed fantasy about a County Community Center; I've designed houses; I've devised a clever plan to save the game of pool in America; I'm a camera manufacturer, as you might expect, and the cameras are unlike anything on the market; I've solved the obesity epidemic; and I've got a detailed plan for a new basketball league called "The Six-Foot League" in which, among many other shall we say "innovative" rules, all the players must be under 6'1" tall.

I've written many screenplays. In my head.

Those are just a few of many.

And in all of these plans, amazingly enough, funding is never an issue. In fact, the only thing I cannot apply any imagination or creativity to, for some reason, are plans the purpose of which would be making money for myself! More's the pity pour moi.

Michael Perini: "I’m sure some of your ideas would be helpful. We all have those 'if I were the boss' thoughts and desires. But for better or worse those jobs get filled by people who have spent a career preparing and 'growing into' such positions at that or similar institutions—whatever the field. Once you have the top job , the landscape rarely looks the same as it did from outside. Your ideas might be very good but still face tough sledding. People who are charging/paying $20k/semester might raise eyebrows at spending one shooting on an iPhone...even if it proved to be a good idea...."

Dave Van de Mark: "I’m ready—what is the cost of enrollment? Leicas! Medium Format! Travel! Too much to pass up and I’ll take my chances regarding no job at the end.  :-)  "

John Krill: "Yes, I know smartphones are the future. But that doesn't mean I have to accept that future. I love to make prints. 13x19 prints of my best stuff. On paper that costs me about $5 a sheet. Make prints from a smartphone files? I think not. So I guess I would be sick or, better yet, in Paris when you have your smartphone section. Also, I don't even have a smartphone and considering what they bite you for each month I probably never will."

Mike replies: I felt just that way until my readers challenged me to get to grips with iPhonography about five years ago. In the spirit of experimentation (or open-mindedness) I reluctantly decided to embrace it for three months or so, which was the period of time I chose in the '80s to use a camera I was reviewing. At first I couldn't wait for that three months to end. Five years later I have to say the iPhone is a constant photographic delight, and one I've even managed to do some serious work with—my most recent project was a 15-picture portfolio of iPhone pictures. I admit the prints are miniatures, smaller than your standard—the largest one is not quite 11 inches in the longest dimension, and most of the others are considerably smaller than that.

iPhone snap taken on the way home from the Spiritual
Center of the Universe last night. Kinda typical. I just play with the thing.

Spencer H: "I like it. My school went like this: B&W digital only for the first year, no color assignments. We had a simple B&W conversion workflow, starting simple and adding complexity of the course of the year. Second year, we introduced color, and medium format digital, in the form of Leaf Aptus backs attached to view cameras, and those stayed in the studio where we learned lighting. I remember hating some of the restrictions we had (not being able to use Lighroom chief among them, then a brand-new program, and instead using some archaic DAM platform, long defunct), but looking back, the restrictions like B&W, studio only, or whatever it was forced my creativity and problem solving to high gear."

Kenneth Tanaka: "My own curriculum would be (surprise!) diametrically opposite yours. The overall philosophy of the program would be to first help students learn to see and to get in touch with what they’re seeing. Throughout the first term students would be studying/critiquing imagery across many media and many ages, from last week's New York Times to Carleton Watkins's landscapes.

"Next, they'd apply that awareness by learning to assemble coherent frames (with any digital camera/lens) that accomplish predetermined objectives. One of the most stark differences between amateurs and trained photographers is this ability to compose a coherent, sophisticated frame.

"Then on to specific areas of professional practice applications such as portraiture, documentary, etc. I would offer exposure to the basic camera technologies of the day, as well as a solid grounding in digital processing and printing...but only at the end of the curriculum.

"I would not offer any classes in chemical photography or other techniques of yesteryear. If a kid’s paying me $25–30k/year for photographic training s/he should expect to at least gain skills that will prospectively endure for a lifetime. If someone wants to learn how to make a platinum print or daguerreotype they should attend some weekend workshop."

Mike replies: I disagree with you and could make a comprehensive response, but I don't have the time to write it out. In a (very tiny) nutshell, I went to art school, and my opinion is that any attempt to "teach people how to see" amounts, in practice, to an effort (however subtle) to inculcate them into an academic/doctrinaire acceptance of whatever is fashionable to or approved by the institution and the faculty of the institution and the prevailing aesthetic milieu in which the institution exists. I could write this argument in detail and with concrete examples going back at least to the Salon and the Royal Academy in the 19th century and the waves of avant-garde movements they eventually inspired...if I had a week and didn't have a job. My opinion is that what people eventually choose to do with their photography should be up to them, and that an ideal educational program would fit them with the means and skills to do their work and then stand back.

This might seem dull and uncool. But it's actually radical. Radically uncool, one might even say. :-)

As for gaining skills that prospectively will endure for a lifetime, what do you imagine my darkroom training was in 1982–5? It was necessary, accepted, and fully expected to endure into the foreseeable future....

Ilkka: "A 50mm is a good way to start but I wouldn't insist on Leica. Old Pentax or Nikon or Minolta would do just as well. After that, I would add one lens. And I would let the student decide whether s(he) wants to add wide, say 24/28mm or long, 85/90/100mm."

Mike replies: Fair enough, but in my opinion it has to be a Leica (provided by the school). There are technical reasons for this that I've elaborated in the past, but also status reasons. Students are touchy about their poverty, and about their self-image and identity, and there is nothing else in photography like the lore and legend of Leica; getting to grips with classic 20th-century photography and getting to know the "Leica mystique" up close and personal is a "feather in one's cap" that will tie a young newcomer to essential aspects of the medium's history, and make him or her feel special and feel proud in the process. And that's by design.

This is also part of the reason for using a medium-format digital camera in the third unit. It's partially for technical reasons, but also partly to allow students to experience the "best" at the time, or what's imagined to be the best, while they're being subsidized by their tuition. It's partly a matter of what Oren Grad calls "demystification," designed to partly free them from future GAS. —Sincerely, a formerly penniless art student who dressed in raggedy clothes and ate ramen noodles and very much didn't want to be stuck with any old crappy castoff eBay leftover.

Comments

[Peter Komar]

Mike, ever think of putting together a summer program for your idea? I would approach several of the major Media/Photographic workshops, the one in Maine strikes me as a good one. They may bring you on board as part of their summer offerings, maybe just a condensed version of your idea?
I would certainly be intrigued and Maine is not too far for you to spend your summers ? Just sayin

[Animesh Ray]

Would you take me to your school?

[JG]

Why require medium-format digital cameras? Aside from creating potentially more robust files for post-processing, what is the point of forcing students to incur even more debt, especially given their limited employment prospects upon graduation?

I'm asking because as the owner of a medium-format digital outfit that hasn't been used much lately relative to my A7R outfit, I have learned they are not the best choice for every purpose nor are they the best fit with every photographer's individual needs.

[Alex]

Good plan. But wouldnt any off-the-shelf, sold -for-a-dime SLR with a 50mm lens be more usable and also cheaper for a beginner?

[Russ]

The more practical and potentially lucrative curriculum would teach people how to set up a for profit training website on how to become a professional photographer.

[Fabian]

Why not convert this into an online course and offer it to your readers? I’d be happy to sign up if I could afford your tuition… the price of Leicas and digital medium format cameras obviously being the other part of the problem. Still, sounds like a course I would love to take!

[Peter Wright]

Sign me up! Sounds like lots of fun and I would be sure to learn all kinds of stuff. (Perhaps you could devise an internet version to reduce student living costs?) And I wouldn't be worried about the lack of job prospects at the end, as I'm already retired.

[Richard Alan Fox]

In my opinion.

Photography began when the first light formed image was fixed.

Historically there have been two types of photography, chemical and electronic but both rely on light and time and the fixing of an image.

At my "Academy Of Light Formed Images" we would start with chemical, building our own cameras with pinholes, exposing film or paper developing in a dark room, creating unique fixed images.

That is how it begins.

[Paul De Zan]

Sounds like REALLY big fun, but if the ultimate objective is to materially increase the number of truly great photographic images in the world (and it may not be), you might be better off spending the time and money on discovering unpublished geniuses who are now 70ish or older. I tend to agree with Harlan Ellison that their are no Great American Novels sitting unread in home office desks, but I'm certain that is not true for great photography.

[Andy]

Please can you come and write the course material for my BA Hons Photography, Mike? I am weary of referencing Barthes, Sontag et al and being told that there's no such thing as a good photograph.

[Stephen Kennedy]

This is a great idea.

You've already created the syllabus. All you need now are some videos that you make yourself or crowdsource from TOP readers on each lesson or topic.

It's not going to be an earner for anyone but it could be the best online shortcourse for serious students.

It could be completely free or you could monetize it through YouTube pre-roll ads.

[Ray Hunter]

You will never become King of the World while blaming Butters for your hearing loss, but Butters may!

[Steven Ralser]

Looks like these will have to be rich students - Leica, iPhone X(or 8), med format digital + lenses. Which struggling photo students will be able to afford all these + processing film, or will your graduate program have a healthy endowment to fund everything?

[T. Edwards]

Okay - I'd like to sign up for the inaugural class.

Ahem...I assume there are some scholarships available to help defray the cost of all of these different cameras and lenses ...

[Terry Manning]

Forwarding this to a friend who is a photography instructor.

[Adrian Malloch]

I love your idea Mike. But – of course there was always going to be a but – if I was the Grand Pharaoh in charge of everything, I would insist that in that first film-Leica semester, the students would have to do the darkroom section but with close supervision and assistance from a master printer. The key would be for them, after creating a proof-sheet, having to choose one and only one photo from each shoot to perfect a print. The uberprintermentor could well do a lot of that hands-on finessing, progressively giving over more and more control to the student as their skills and judgement improve. With this method a student would realise their passion, and care for their craft in a way that would help them find their own voice. There is something about physically creating an image oneself, instead of delegating it to an unseen process, that accelerates creativity and personal development.

[William Lewis]

If I should ever win the lottery, I'd finance such a course on the condition that I get to be _in_ the class. Because if I did win the lottery, I'd presumably have enough to spare that afterwards I could use those skills you taught without worrying about rent and food money O_o

That said, given how incredibly much I've learned just from your blog, I can only wistfully imagine how great a delight it would be to become your student.

[John]

Good luck with that...

I have some ideas for journalism that similarly stand zero chance of becoming reality.

[Gary Alessi]

What you are describing sounds like combined B.F.A......and M.F.A...... To get into an M. F. A. program these days....you have to have a very coherent portfolio....and statement.....and a B.A.....or B.F.A....

[YB Hudson III]

Sounds like a terrific undergraduate exercise. Graduate peeps should be pushing t’ aesthetic... not flat earth followers on a field trip? My MFA hangs just below the new moon painted on the outhouse dOOr!

YB Hudson III

[Mark]

I like your curriculum, except for the Leica part, which I don't understand. What can I learn with a Leica and a 50 mm lens that I can't learn with, say, a Nikkormat ftn and a nikkor 50? Or a Canon Ae1? These are fine, plentiful, inexpensive cameras that can do everything described in your curriculum. I really am curious: what is it about a Leica that's absent in a Pentax, Minolta, Olympus, Canon, Yashica, or Nikon?

[Huw Morgan]

Hi Mike,

I'm usually in tune with the way you think, but this column has me mystifief. It's so focused on tools without any regard for content. I would suggest a completely different approach of studying the great masters of art and photography and leaving the tool up to the student. Let them spend a few months trying to create still lifes, experimenting with lighting and different cameras. Then, move on to portraiture, landscape, fashion, conceptual art, etc. The tool is secondary to artistic intent. Let the students find their artistic calling and then figure out the tool that works for them.

[Bill Mitchell]

Sounds like a great two years, except after the initial single lens stent they should be using zoom lenses instead of w/n/t.

[beuler]

Sorry Mike, this would never work. 50mm is just the wrong focal length [sarcastic grin].

[Henry Rogers]

Does "Academic Recognition" really matter, at least to start with? You could run something like this as an online club with an appropriate subscription payable quarterly to cover start-up costs and the time you spend on it. If the idea works it would probably grow fast enough to attract serious backing.

[scott kirkpatrick]

That's a curious curriculum. It's all about making pictures, viewing pictures, printing pictures, but nothing about what the photographer can say with the pictures. Or learn. Or cause others to feel. I haven't had this sort of an education, so I don't know if students arrive with a clear and realistic objective in mind about what photographic skills could mean to them, but I doubt it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that part of your 2-year curriculum. It would be absolutely critical to the final project.

[Jim Witkowski]

Polish this prospectus a bit and post it on KickStart. There have bee worse ideas that have been funded. The worst that can happen is that you don't meet your goal and you'll be right where you are now - jw

[David Babsky]

I just don't see the point of going "back in time" to shoot with film ..if you're running a car-building course would you have them build their own spoked cartwheels first? ..And it seems especially daft to use C-41 colour-chemistry XP2 film, as that completely misses the simplicity of develop-fix-wash silver-based film. (Why not have them shoot Polaroid if you're going to short-circuit any learning about development?)

My photography didn't blossom till I used a Canon 300D digital SLR (having begun with film in 1954). Not restricted to 36. Didn't have to wait for development. Infinitely variable with instant feedback. Should new drivers have to learn on one of those old tractors before being allowed behind a car wheel? What's this obsession for teaching the 'past'?

[Richard Parkin]

Your smartphone module just might be practical if you ran it as an entirely online course. Might even make you some money, though it would probably kill this blog due to time constraints :-(

[John Robison]

Shoot with a Leica and 50mm lens....later add a wide angle and telephoto....
From your description I assume these are wealthy students.

What’s wrong with a Ricoh KR5 with a 50 f2 and then later a 28 and 135, you know, as an option for the majority of potential students.
I would have said a 85 or 100 but again, much harder to find for a reasonable price.
I dunno, maybe I’m working from incorrect assumptions, based solely on my own income demographic.

[John Berger]

Dear Mike
You said something like:

I wish I had some actual power in the world. I wish I were in charge of something I knew about. I think I'd be good at it-I have lots of ideas.....

Ummm, sounds to me like the world famous TOP Major Entity, and IMHO your wishes have come true ! Congratulations are in order, since not everyone gets to have their wishes come true. Just sayin', as we say.

[Michael Mejia]

The strength of this is that it fits you so well. From that position guidance forward is integrated and comprehensive.

[D. Hufford]

Seems to be the same argument every time you post about the one lens, one camera, one-year using a Leica. Ought a cut and paste a standard response.

This actually sounds like an interesting course, and yes, with the iPhone portion included. It's about photography after all.

You could, had you time or an assistant, run a discount course for the old fellows who either cannot accept that an iPhone could be used to take a decent photo or refuse to try. Substitute a poetry section on tones, grain structure, and the "transparentness" of film prints.

One of the big attractions for all would be the lack of need to worry about money. I'd quit my job, rent a private jet, and tool around in my classic Datsun 240z, and spend weekends doing my photography homework in either a 1957 Ford Thunderbird or a 1972 era Toyota Land Cruiser.

[john robison]

Re your answer to Ilkka;

"Leica Mistique"?!?!

I cannot believe the man who wrote the article
"The 50mm Lens and Metaphysical Doubt" could utter that.

And, "People Like Leicas" from just 3three weeks ago. Wherein you write, "...the majority of hobbyists and enthusiasts who try to like rangefinders...don't."

So, why start out with what the 'majority' don't like. TTL framing on the other hand just makes more sense, and if you want to get a little closer even the most pedestrian 50mm SLR lens focuses down to a field size of about 7X11 inches, try that with a Leica mounting a fifty. And getting close is what some people 'choose to do with their photography' and that, as you argued to Ken T. should be up to the student, why limit them to subjects no closer than three feet.

Ok, rant off. But...a Nikkormat FT2 with a 50mm f2 Nikkor beats the socks off a Leica M for versality, is much more rugged, and, if students cannot learn "the means and skills to do their work" with that, then a Leica just ain't going to help.