College

I am currently a junior (highschool), and I am trying to find a school

which has a decent photography department. So far my top choice is

NYU, at the Tisch school of the arts...any thoughts on schools known

for their photography departments? or schools which have well known

professors?

 

If it helps, I am interested in photojournalism/photo-documentary and

other related subjects such as (non photographic) journalism.

 

Thanks

-Ben

have you thought of assisting a working pro and using your money for your own photography and travels?

Consider Rochester Institute of Technology. There's not exactly an urban buzz like you'll find at NYU, but there is a well-regarded photo program.

 

I went to RIT, but for accounting. It was a great place to buy equipment from photo students who needed cash.

Consider also Rhode Island School of Design, a fully accredited (and supposedly

prestigious in the art world) four year college which has a well-regarded photography

program.

Statistically, most working photographers have never been to school, and have taken Matt's route mentioned above.

If your interest is in photojournalism rather than photography in general then you should probably look for a photojournalism program and ignore suggestions for art-oriented or commercial-photography-oriented programs. Western Kentucky is one of the best, and I know that the University of Florida has a strong program. There are surely others.

<i>Statistically, most working photographers have never been to school, and have taken Matt's route mentioned above.</i>

<p>

Statistically, most working photographers shoot weddings and catalogs.

Another thing I'd strongly suggest is calling up a major newspaper in your area and talking to the photo staff. I'm sure they'd be very happy to talk to you, and you'd get better advice from them than you're going to get here.

Statistically, most photo editors look at portfolio's, not degrees and diplomas.

Statistically, most editors would probably prefer someone educated enough to know that you don't use apostrophes when pluralizing regular nouns. Attending college will help with this sort of thing.

stastistics show that 55% of all statistics are false, and that statisticaly speaking, most statistilics don't know that 45% of the statistics that they speak of are generaly false.

 

my vote is to still go out there and do it!

Statistically, grammar haves nothing to do with shooting.

 

Statistically, most educational photography programs are taught by photogs that couldn't/didn't make it and resorted to teacher. Weekend seminars are different however.

 

Statistically, most working photogs that went to school claim it was a waste of time and had no relevance on the real world.

 

Assist working photogs and learn the business end of this craft, it's 99% of it.

 

Gotta jet, this unschooled photog has a shoot in a hour, and it's not a wedding or a catalog...

 

And no Jeff, I can't cite any references :)

assist a photographer and take a part time business course. that's photography...unless you're talking about art :)

RIT has a good program for photojournalism, but no journalism programs. I can't remember the name of the college - University of Missouri (at Columbia) or Columbia College (also in Missouri) - have one of the countries top photojournalist programs as well as one of the best journalism programs. Sorry I can't give the proper name but someone may know. Syracuse University also has a good program, but I would look into the Missouri thing first.

 

A university degree is very important. It will give you far more possiblities than a portfolio alone. You will learn more in four years at a good college than anywhere else.

 

But I would recommend visiting any school and seeing the faculty, facilities, and student work. Each school has their own culture. That is something that can be more important than the courses taught because it sets the tone of what photography is. I went to RIT which has a very practical and techniical approach to photography compared to say Rhode Island School of Design with favors a more intuitive, artistic view. Not that one is better than the other, or that art is ignored at RIT or technique is forgotten at RISD, but these qualities vary in degree (rather than in absolute differences). A few students left RIT simply because thay did not like the culture (and that can be a big waste of time and money).

P.S. If you want to work in photojournalism, you will need to know how to write well.

Right now I'm at Ohio University in Athens which has the one of the top 3 photojournalism programs and top 7 journalism programs. That said, they're just arbitrary ratings and there are more important things to take into account. Your surroundings can be as important as the quality of the school. OU is a fairly isolated rural campus that doesn't have too many news events happening. Another useless statistic is that Princeton Review rated OU the #5 party school. Because of the isolation, the focus is pretty heavy on documentary picture stories. The curriculum focuses on how to incorporate new media like flash presentations and audio for photo stories. OU also has several well know alumni. Last year's Pulitzer winner Carolyn Cole of the LA Times all but finished her graduate degree here and just behind her for Pulitzer consideration was Chris Hondros of Getty Images. Sports Illustrated and National Geographic photographer Lynn Johnston decided to get a degree here even though she was already a very prominent and well established photographer. I could go on but I won't.

 

The other two of the "top 3" are Western Kentucky and the previously mentioned Mizzou. They're all fairly rural with Columbia, Missouri probably being the biggest of the 3 towns. Other highly rated programs include Brooks visual journalism program (expensive but they have Time photographer P.F. Bentley teaching there for now), San Jose State and San Francisco State.

 

No matter where you go, your success will depend on how determined you are. With a any program, you only get out as much as you put in.

"A university degree is very important. It will give you far more possiblities than a

portfolio alone. You will learn more in four years at a good college than anywhere

else. "

 

i'd disagree with this. any working pro photogs on here that shares this experience? 4 years of assisting a pro and shooting on your own will get you much further than the guy that went to school for 4 years. after school, what do you do? you start at the bottom. a degree will not land you a job. (rare cases can be thrown out)

Err, Matt? What professional photojournalists use assitants?? Editors generally don't hire 18 year old High School graduates??? I learnt far more in my four years at RIT than I ever did assisting.

will,

are you a working photo-j? if some eager, willing to learn, passionate young man/woman offered you their time for no pay, would you take them up on it? if not, what would your reason be?

 

how much did your 4 years of school cost you? did you have a part time job in the summer? if ben were to take tuition from each year, he could probably go on a few month trip each year to some place exotic and cheap and build a killer portfolio. back home for 9 month's he's working at the local camera store and assisting guys like you.

 

maybe this is un common in the pj world, but i've definately heard of pj's using assistants.

"A university degree is very important. It will give you far more possiblities than a portfolio alone."

 

Like learning how to spell the word 'possibilities'?

 

I'm on the same page as Matt. You come out of school after four years with a false and fabricated portfolio and every editor knows it and you still start at the same place as if you didn't go to school. Do you know how many students get released into the real world every year and start flooding out resumes and cv? Hundreds. Most of the successful attributes of pj work can't be taught in school anyway, you're born with it. If you seriously are considering a diploma program of some sorts, find one that has an internship as part of the program. Learn digital, laptops, and wifi and everything else useful to pj work and go out and assist in the meantime. Do some research on how many get out of pj work after discovering how unromantic it is for being married to a pager for 60k a year.

you've got alot of answers here dude. I when to a party school, CU Boulder then transferred to the San Francisco Art Institute to finish my BFA in Photography. in my opinion, unless you're desperate to go to Tisch, you're up for a program geared toward fine art. I'm not too sure about the program at Tisch, but you can get a better impression of them if you research some of the professors then look at some of the student's work. best way to tell a good program is the masters program - if you like their work, the chances are the BFA work is not too bad. if you don't like any of it, you won't like it there.

 

I agree with most of the guys when they say go work with a pro and submit portfolios but to be honest, you don't meet anyone your age working for a pro. Plus working photojournalist and photo-doc guys usually work alone. only commercial pro employ assistants.

 

here are a couple of good schools to look at: yale, cooper union, RISD, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Mass Art, School of the Visual Arts (NY), Bard (NY), International Center of Photography (NY), UCLA, CCA (CA), CalArt and my school, SFAI.

 

Faculty at Yale are super well know - Gregory Crewdson, P.L. DiCorcia. Cooper Union is a free ride if the slide you send in are really really good. RISD (from what I hear from friends and family) is a real good environment and conveniently next to Brown. Mass Art is good and cheap but real hard to get into. SVA and Bard have Stephen Shore (I think he's still there). UCLA has John Baldessari. CCA has Larry Sultan. SFAI has Reagan Louie and Hank Wessel. Most of the schools I mention will offer scholarships to students who show promise. I know cause I had a large annual scholarship at SFAI for 3 years.

 

check for professors so you have an idea of who you'll be working with then check the curriculum. mostly important go to a school that has a good location and remember, you're going to college to have fun.

 

final opinion, research the photographers you like and find out where they went to school.

 

good luck

Matt, I would not take a free volunteer. First, I don't need one. Hard to do this kind of work in a crowd. Secondly, I don't have the time to give out free leasons. They would need to know what to do from the beginning and at the most that would be organizing travel arrangements, setting up appointments, picking up and dropping of film/prints/essays, maybe setting up equipment, but certainly not shooting. And there is absolutely no reason to teach them to use a camera. Someone who can't do this basic stuff is just causing more work.

 

Your education pays you back by teaching you what you need to know in a short time and allowing you to get your foot in the door. Ben will need to know more than how to use a camera in photojournalism. He needs to know how to research his story and get the facts right. He may have to write the story until he gets in a position to solely devote himself to photography. He will need to craft a good query letter to an editor. He should also study subjects that will help him understand his subject - eg. political science, economics, history, sociology, etc. All of these things he can learn at college. None of this he will get as an assistant (if he can find that position in photojournalism).

 

It is an extremely competitive market and the lack of a degree and skills will work against him when he starts out. If he decides that photography is not his thing and wants to work in editing or publishing, the HS degree is not going to do it.

 

Sure it is possible to become a photographer without a degree, but why make it harder on yourself? Why limit your potential choices because you did not go to college? I college degree is a requirement today as a high-school degree was important 50 years ago. To say it is not important is not facing modern realities.

 

But you obiviously found a college education did not help you find a job in photojournalism. Maybe you can share how you went about it?

will,

i'm not a pro pj. photography is a hobby for me. i think an assistant would not be there or working by your side to shoot. he'd do the dirty work that he knows off the bad (dropping off film, pickups, the boring ho hum work) maybe the odd afternoon he sits in as you do some research or something.

 

i do not like the idea of getting a degree to 'fall back onto' if he finds out he doesnt' like pj work. if you have a fall back plan, you most probably will fall back. (old proverb, forget the reference)

 

like eric said, these students are churned out yearly by the hundreds with similar portfolios.

 

now, not going to school takes the right kind of determination. ben has to ask questions, get in there, not be afraid, make mistakes and jump back. if the scholarship is available, do it! if not, the cost of some of these programs can be quite high and would have me singing a different song.

since you're also interested in other subjects and non-photo journalism, i advise

you to attend a school with a strong liberal arts program. it doesn't sound like

you're dead-set on pursuing photography as a career. you'll explore so many new topics

and will very possibly develop new interests.

 

as a HS junior, i was most interested in econ, astrophysics, and history. that changed. i

was lucky enough to attend schools with strong departments in most all fields. i know

that Very Respectable colleges/universities, though not necessarily renowned in

photography, will teach you what you need to know. in photography/art, you're creating

your own work - if it's good, it's good.

 

college education is primarily about inspiring broad and critical thought. also, as a

previous poster mentioned, you'll need to know how to write as a journalist. many

college graduates i've encountered have horrific writing skills. for both reasons, i

recommend a decent liberal arts school (not just amherst/swarthmore types - also the

colleges of arts and sciences at larger universities like, say, u.pennsylvania. a good

college life is pretty damn important,

too; your happiness level will definitely affect your edification.

 

go to college, if you can; not for any direct monetary gain or career moves, but because

it's an Experience.

 

btw, if you're interested in NYU, also look into the Gallatin School.

jeff's right. you've got to have writing skills in the field. even as an artist, I thought writing had nothing to do with taking pictures. its an essential tool for any critical thinking.