And yes, I do think that few people in academia spend enough time learning how to teach, and very few actually enjoy teaching.
How would this work for photography (which I also have taught)? Well I think that first and foremost people need to understand the history of the field and how it came to be what it is today. Second, I think the basic techniques should be so thoroughly mastered as to leave the student unencumbered. But these things can be done through a student's own exploration and not rammed down the throat.
I am in a field where for too long the approach has been to teach solutions before students have an interest in the problems; I do spend a fair amount of time on motivating critical thought.
Thanks for this. I am delighted with what you've said. We probably need another thread for this. There is a great deal to say about it.
I learned that my students do not see, and have, in general, no idea what seeing would be. For example, and a particularly poignant one, I once asked "What is real?" The answer I got was "We each get to make that up for ourselves." If that is what reality is, then seeing is not important at all, is it?
So I said, "That's great! The skin tone is perfect! In fact, it is so perfect that it matches precisely the value of that brushed aluminum lamp-post that is extending his head right out the top of the frame."[/quote]
That's cold, what a way to learn.
It reminds me of grade school when someone shouts out, "Hey look his drawing is crooked" That person decides at that instant to never try to be artistic again and adopts the philosophy, "I'm not artistic", when they might have developed into the greatest living artist of their time.
In reality though who is going to tell the student about the pipe. They would loose confidence in the teacher if someone pointed it out later. Learning can be tough. At a well know school in Southern California there is a no punches pulled school that simply tears up the print or negative and doesn't allow anyone to see it.
Maybe discuss composition before printing? That's another discussion.
Why some have it from the start, IE AA, or someone who struggles for years to refine the craft is not easy to define. What about Grandma Moses who worked at the end of her life, did it take that long to learn, or did he always have what it and not use it?
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"What are you photographing?" is the usual question. Quite often, even after detailing the scene for them and even giving them a look at the ground-glass (geez, it's upside down and in colour!) they still can't SEE what is worth a sheet of 8x10.
Nope. What it is with me is "What are you taking pictures of?" Answer: "I don't do of."
Quote:
...when it comes to seeing, really seeing, photographers are unmatched by anyone else in the visual arts.
Well, the best lesson I ever had in seeing was in art school, in a drawing class. Harold Jacobs, Cooper Union graduate, a new and I believe transient faculty member at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum School. He put two eggs on a scoop of white paper inside a window admitting not northlight but similar. He had us draw it with charcoal. He showed us the reflections of the light from the shell of one egg to the shell of the other. I've never lost that. It has been 44 years.
I had one teacher in 8th grade who tried to do this. Our class responded well and was learning (I think) and this teacher lasted just 2 years at that school.
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I'm now trying to relearn how to see. It's not that easy, but looking at things without a goal in mind seems to work better for me. If I have a preconceived image in mind, I won't find it or any other that's better. Any suggestions on how to learn to see at 40?
2 years is pretty good. Often they don't make it even that long. How have I survived in my job? By never being hired to a tenure track. I'm cheap, I'm good, I'm popular enough because I learned how to be entertaining soon enough to be able to survive.
Relearning to see; 40 is not too old. Actually, I don't think there is a too old. I'm 65. I don't know if this is the place for exercises, etc. but there are things that one can do.
I apologize for the comment, it was totally uncalled for. I had just finished reading the following. A great teacher can change a persons life, literally, I had the opportunity to have a few great teachers.
Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t teach, counsel. Those who can’t counsel, administrate. Those who can’t administrate, enter data into the computer. Those who can’t enter data into the computer, take dictation. Those who can’t take dictation, alphabetize files. Those who can’t alphabetize files, answer the phone. Those who can’t answer the phone, fry hamburgers. Those who can’t fry hamburgers, run the cash register. Those who can’t run the cash register, wait on tables. Those who can’t wait on tables, carry dirty dishes to the kitchen. Those who can’t carry dirty dishes to the kitchen, wash the dirty dishes. Those who can’t wash dirty dishes, peel potatoes. Those who can’t peel potatoes, buff the floor. Those who can’t buff the floor, haul out the garbage. Those who can’t haul out the garbage, write poetry. Those who can’t write poetry, write clever letters to the editor. Those who can’t write clever letters to the editor, write angry letters to the editor. Those who can’t write angry letters to the editor, spray-paint graffiti. Those who can’t spray-paint graffiti, write screenplays. Those who can’t write screenplays, write TV scripts. Those who can’t write TV scripts, read scripts for the studios. Those who can’t read scripts for the studios, act. Those who can’t act, take acting classes. Those who can’t take acting classes, sing. Those who can’t sing, sing Rock’N'Roll. Those who can’t sing Rock’N'Roll, sing it anyway. Those who can’t sing it anyway, become depressed. Those who can’t become depressed, get bitter. Those who can’t get bitter, get confused. Those who can’t get confused, stay confused. Those who stay confused, find it difficult to complete unfinished sentences. Those who find it difficult to complete unfinished sentences, _____________. <!– D(["mb"," \n
On the original question posted, can we learn to see, I answer yes, we can and must, if we are to thrive in this world. In terms of seeing the types of relationships that make a good photo (and here input your own set of criteria: dark and light, new and old, social meaning, textural contrasts, line, shape, form, whatever works for you...,) it is definitely a learned skill. I have been a painter and a teacher for all of my adult life and I have (I hope) never stopped learning to see in new ways. Kids teach me all the time.
Just think about the first time you made a print. You may have been focused on the details of the image, on the expression on your sitter's face, or on the grain, or on the composition of the work. Later on, you find that there is a richness in the darks of somebody else's work that you haven't yet achieved - a fact that you had not seen before. Now you look for it and are newly sensitized to the paper type you use, the developer and the processing you do. This leads to all sorts of newly acquired sensitivities in assessing your work. As has been said, we see what we are looking for. We have to learn what to look for.
As for talent, the ability to fine tune both perception and craft to the point of being perhaps uniquely able to communicate through your work - no, I don't think that can be taught. What talent we have, however, is at the mercy of the limitations we place on it by failing to learn.
I believe that truly seeing is that when you view something - close your eyes and you can feel what you just beheld.
I have learned to observe my ability to do this in the six years I've practiced photography. But I believe it was always latent within. It took a lot of practice to use that skill, though. And since I became aware of this ability and learned how to use it, my photography is better.
- Thomas
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Please visit my APUG Portfolio - - - Wisdom I believe in: “Do not photograph what you see! Instead capture what you feel when the wind grazes your face, and the scents and sounds fill you with inspiration.” - Per Volquartz
I am gradually learning to get around on this wonderful site; as you can see from my ID, I've been here maybe two months, now.
A few years back, I taught an online course that was supposed to be about digital imaging (I'll never teach online again!) but I quickly learned that my students couldn't see. What is the point in a course dealing with imaging if the students aren't prepared? I've had considerable training in seeing, and have thought a lot about it. I decided to really go for it, to explore the idea of "seeing" in a great deal of depth. So here are some references:
This text is basic to a lot of western philosophy, but not that far from the eastern, either. Here's where I have a problem with "social brainwashing" - not in its presence, but in its place in the picture. While our inability to see results from such brainwashing, that brainwashing itself derives from the human condition (as I see it). It can't be avoided.
This story reports a very memorable experience that I was fortunate to have while observing groups of people traveling through a pitch-dark lava tube. It has to do with how we perceive "reality", and how that perception determines what and how we see.
I think a lot of people may have read this. If not, it is an easy read, and lots of fun. Women readers: Abbott's characters are 2 dimensional geometric shapes that correspond with their class, but women are simply straight lines. Lots of women get quite incensed at this. What I know about this is that Abbott was an early feminist. He was using this to chide Victorian society about its hypocrisy. Just how this would have that result, I don't know. I think it must be hard for us in our time to understand the Victorian mind.
This, of course, is very controversial, but I thought it would challenge the mind (certainly did mine!) concerning just what it is to be human, and how our perceptions are conditioned by the circumstances of our origin. There were some arguments! One man argued against the existence of feral children even as he described his experience with a girl who had been confined in a cage with dogs for the first few years of her life. Emotions get pretty hot on this topic.
5. Background, not part of the material, but an acquaintance with Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract would be helpful.
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