Educators who don't photograph or don't photograph well...

Some time ago I had a hostile encounter with a fine art photography instructor on campus. It was really

silly, but led me to go out of my way to view some of their work, for lack of better things to do. I admit I

was prowling for something to make me feel better, as in a "humph, whats so special about them?" but

what I wasn't prepared for what I saw. Their work was unexhilerating, common, and uninspiring. I wouldn't

vocate these feelings normally, as I'm not a critic, and I believe that anyone, no matter what skill level they

posess, should be given support and mentorship in pursuit of the arts, but this time I feel justified in my

regard seeing that this instructor unfairly wronged me and made me feel like I didn't belong in the

department. This led me to think a bit more about my photography professors and mentors over the

years. I've been very lucky to have some talented people teaching and guiding me since I started. I can

think of three people (two fine art photographers and teachers, and one commercial photographer) who

taught me alot. These three had amazing work that I hope mine can someday come close to. But then

there are numerous instructors who didn't give me any inspiration, taught me very little in the way of

technique, and took what seemed like every opportunity to shoot down my work. These people didn't

often show their own work, and when I went out of my way to see it, as I did with the instructor that I had

an encounter with, it was like I said above, bland and uninspiring. This isn't just at one campus, I've been

to a few schools and this has held true each time. Is there some complex that under achieving

photography instructors have that makes them feel like they and their work are better than what students

have to offer? Is this something other students have seen in their classes? I don't see any more point in

taking classes from instructors like this, as I could save the money (large amounts of it) and put that

towards furthering my own work. I'm burnt out on the types of people!

This isn't really a "photography" issue. It's a "idiot" issue.

 

Uninspiring people make uninspiring instructors. Somewhat unsurprisingly, they frequently make uninspiring art as well.

 

Being a high quality photographer is not a requirement to be a good photography teacher. After all, how could anyone teach Tiger Woods anything if the teacher had to be better than the student? Inspiring people make inspiring instructors. Every good teacher has something to teach you if you meet them at the right time on your educational path.

Jeffery ,It's kind of hard to tell from your gallery what you did or did not learn from your teachers. I think you can learn something from just about anybody, even if its not to do things the way they do it. I had a lot of people influence my photography, mostly other photographers ,but also a few teachers. I think a teacher might not know very much about photography, but is a genius at putting together a learning experience. Setting up photographers to critique each others work and learn by the Socratic method rather than by example. I believe that photography is like learning to sail. Someone can teach you in 20 min. the fundamentals of photography or sailing, and then you as the student, spend a lifetime of making it a craft.I think you ether get it or you don't, but blaming your instructors is a waste of time.

Good points. The more I read my post and the responses over it seems that I was just looking

for some kind of confirmation for my angry blabbering. Thanks for the replies.

My view is: don't choose your course, chose your instructor!

 

It's not just about whether you admire the instructor's work - though certainly that's an excellent starting point, but whether they convey a love and enthusiasm for the subject together with absolute precision and mastery of the aspect of the craft they are teaching.

 

I have done loads of formal education. Most of it has been very, very ordinary. But just occasionally you find somene who's just on the right waveleength for you; able to inspire and motivate you, and able to challenge you in just the way you need challenging. Those people may be instructors or tutors, but they can just as well be colleagues, bosses or friends. You need to watch out for those people because they don't come along very often!

Maybe the instructor's talents are in teaching rather than photography? I can think of several photographer's I've met with fantastic bodies of work, but I think they'd be lousy instructors. You said the hostile encounter was silly; don't let it keep you from being open to the idea that this guy may be able to teach you a thing or two even if you don't find his work exciting.

It's not unique to photography. I'd expect in most cases, the "professor" got his or her position as the result of their academic prowess and research, perhaps even published work. One would hope in "art" or "music" there is a demonstrated skill as well. But when it comes to teaching, they've probably had little or no education in "teaching." I'd use pedagogy but that's a rather over the top term that most folks outside of education would bypass (or not know).

 

I'd also expect that the transition from possessing and teaching technical skills to communicating/enabling consistent production of "art" on demand is difficult in the extreme and also requires a student with a level of vision and innate ability that not all students will possess.

 

My guess is that there were communications issues as well.

I'm sure you've heard the old saying: if you can't do, teach. If you can't teach, teach photography. (or was it phys ed?) :) There are all sorts of teachers. Some are brilliant and good at passing along what they know. Others are brilliant but bad at teaching. Some don't know much, but can do a great job at passing along what little they do know. And some don't know much and aren't good at teaching either.