At 12:19 -0800 14/1/03, R. Jackson wrote:
>Yeah, in a perfect world I'd probably opt out of this guy's class and
>see what his colleague's ideas are, but I'm kind of stuck.
Don't worry about either teacher's ideas; they're not important.
What's important is your ideas, and what you want to say.
Learn technique from the teacher; learn how to express yourself from
looking at other great expressions, and from taking lots of pictures
yourself.
Not pictures that meet somebody's criteria of what a good picture is, but
pictures that say what is your reaction to the world around you.
Read books of photographs. Forget books ABOUT photography, photographers,
the photography business or art photography world.
Look at every photographer's work whose name you recognize in the library.
Choose the ones whose pictures speak to you of the human condition, not
those whose pictures win prizes and fame.
There's a huge amount of really bad pictures out there; learning how to
avoid them, even though they are schlock, will get you closer to making
pictures for yourself.
If your career goal isn't photography (you mentioned film school?) don't worry.
Remember that Stanley Kubrick was a still photographer for Look Magazine
before he became a movie maker.
Go do it.
>And maybe he
>was just temporarily insane last night. That's what I keep hoping. If
>I'm in for a whole semester of Tips For The Leic* User it's going to
>get old fast. He was really neurotic about supplies, too. No
>substitutions. Everything had to be exactly what he specified. I'm
>still looking for a lipstick-tube brush and I had to hit a couple of
>places to find Edwal film cleaner.
Tell him to GFH and get on with taking pictures.
--
Cheers from Godzone,
Michael Kopp
Wellington, New Zealand
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