matthias_bruggmann

for what it's worth, there was a show, with a catalogue, that drafted 500 photographers

from 60 schools and came out with a choice of what three curators liked the best.</br>

</br>

the book is available <a href="http://www.thamesandhudson.com/books/reGeneration/

0500285829.mxs/27/0/">here</a>.</br>

</br>

there's a list of the photographers <a href="http://www.elysee.ch/expos/list_%

20reGeneration.pdf">here</a>.</br>

</br>

(disclaimer : i'm in that list. i have no other interest in pointing towards the show other

than simple fact that the book is an interesting ressource for someone trying to have a

look at what people who have been to a lot of different schools photograph, and how they

photograph it. and that i think it's a damn fine show.)

I'm getting bad scratching, i'd guess from the carriage or the print heads, on an r800.

 

the scratches appear on seeminly random images in a print batch, but the location is then

repeatable. Printing the same picture the next day might not yield a problem, while

another which wasn't a problem will scratch...

 

i'm running osx 10.3.8, printing on epson matte heavyweight. applying thick paper

settings seems to solve the problem, but i'm worried there might be tradeoffs other than

speed.

 

am i doing something wrong ?

Kieran, little to do with funding, a lot to do with philosophy.

 

There simply is nothing else at that level that is both free, or almost, in the general area,

and can take them on. Scolarships in the EU is tough because some are only swiss, and

don't have european passport, and none of them can afford the cost of an american

education, which, given the level, would likely have to be somewhere in the graduate

sphere anyway, the diplomas to which they don't, and can't, have.

 

The students paid for the program by working for three years, 60 or 80 hours a week.What

those kids got from the state was a lot of blood, sweat and tears and not much in return -

the program they were in was canned halfway through.

The educational system here is still a meritocracy, as much as such a thing is possible, not

some weird plutocracy where any idiot with a few hundred grand to burn and a wealthy

family can buy himself an education, or at the very least get a chance to cut the line to it.

 

You don't buy Arno Minkkinen, you don't buy Duane Michals - these people are at a point

in their careers where make more by staying where they are and not investing the energy

into a bunch of pretentious kids than by getting on a plane.

Kieran, this is about the best i've done at getting things down. I sent it out to an english-speaking journo earlier today, and i don't have the energy to rephrase it or edit it down much more.

 

 

 

The Vevey school is, to my knowledge, the longest-running photography school in Europe.

 

That school had a program called Formation Supérieure, or "Advanced Program".

 

This program was taught by alternating university-level classes in theoretical fields (art history, history of photography, computer science, as well as english and german...) with, every other week, week-long workshops taught by a "dream team" of incredible individuals, which included such people as A.D Coleman, Arno Minkkinen, Duane Michals, or the late Helmut Newton. The workshops would jump from someone renown for his ability in self-portraiture to someone like Antonin to Grazia Neri in the course of a few weeks. In the last year alone, students of the graduating class got 40 hours of face-time with Grazia Neri, 80 with Coleman, a full week with Michals, a week with Sophie Riestelhueber, another week with Bill Ewing, the curator of Musee de l'Elysee... The first year students had Arno Minkkinen, and Juan Fontcuberta, the second year had Antonin and Arno and Ann Mandelbaum. And the list goes on, and on, and on. These heavyweights were the norm, not the exception.

 

There are a few things that were so special about that program. One of them is that because the location is so removed, and quiet, it allows for an extremely high level of attention to be given to the student. The other is that the place was state-run, and funded. As a Swiss citizen, tuition cost a grand total of 720 Swiss francs a year, which is around 500 U$, maybe a bit more in these days of weak exchange rate on your side. Foreign students were of course welcome, and encouraged, and since most of the classes were taught in a language foreign to most of the people in the room, would not have any trouble adjusting.

 

Last year, that program was canned, remodeled, and sold to everyone as equivalent.

 

Of the 40 or so A-listers who made the core of the school's address book, a grand total of two have accepted to return after seeing the changes.

 

Arno Mikkinen has called the situation "the educational crime of the century".

 

The students sued the state.

 

An open letter to the school board, and staff, was sent by all (minus one who refused and a couple that couldn't be tracked down...) the alumni, forbidding the school from using their work, names or reputation in promoting the new program.

 

An extremely courageous group of students went on strike in early October, after months of negociations with the state, to protest the changes.

 

They were supported by the alumni in their demands. Coleman, Minkkinen, ICP's Robert Blake, Jacqueline Hassink and Sarah Moon were among those who took the time to also join in support.

 

Six of those students were expelled on Tuesday, after four months on strike, talking to the local media to try to get some awareness out, which got the (new..) dean of the school so miserable he called on the State to "decontaminate the school of the nefarious elements it still houses".

http://www.ou-t.ch (alumni / diploma shows)

 

http://www.fsphoto.ch (current students, up-to-the-minute news)

 

http://www.cepv.ch (school official website)

 

and an interview in french :

 

http://www.swissup.com/art_content.cfm?upid=FR3163

 

my blog, at http://www.boring.ch/matt has a couple of entries related to it, one of which is a translation of the interview that was linked above and is probably the more complete one. I mention the situation a couple of times over the past few months, but nothing major - most of the stuff that has been published about it is in french.

The administration has decided to "decontaminate" the Vevey school of it's "nefarious

elements", who went on strike to protest against changes in the program that led to the

decision of over 40 extremely reputable photographers and educators, amongst which A.D

Coleman, Duane Michals and Arno Minkkinen never to return. Arno has stated that what

happened at Vevey is the "educational crime of the century".

 

The alumni (and by this, i mean ALL the alumni minus two or three whose numbers

couldn't be found) have demanded that the school cease using our "names, our

reputations, or our work, to be in any way associated with the new system."

 

As a former student of the program, i am revolted at what happened, and can only hope

that both the word is spread, within the community, that, as far as those who know it best

are concerned, and if the program remains run by the same people, there is only one way

to state what happened to what was for 7 years one of the leading photography programs

in the world : Vevey is dead.

One of the best was Vevey, in Switzerland. Unfortunately, the (good) program has been closed down and replaced with a (very, very) bad one.

One of the options over here is Lausanne (ECAL), which although competing is of an excellent level.

You might want to have a look at Dusseldorf, in germany, or Kent's contemporary/visual arts program and the London College of Printing in GB.

 

if you'd like more details on what went on in Vevey, which I attended for 4 years before everything was destroyed through administrative stupidity, there's intel, some of it in French though, on http://www.fsphoto.ch

 

former students have their diploma work up on http://www.ou-t.ch

The school was "decontaminated" yesterday. Striking students kicked out, and the repulsive language the staff uses was justified as being a response to the student's claims that they were incompetent.

It is the end of January. This is your first year teacher, the tall skinny guy who used to read

you bedtime stories--at the stone-cold train station hostel at Mendrisio that took your

breath away and two nights to warm up, with everyone jumping into their sleeping bags to

listen by the roaring fire, or at that cozy snowbound bungalow in the Jura where flash

froze the flakes and the cheese was as plentiful as the chess, or deep in the icy Finnish

darkness of Hattula, where the sauna was the only place to really sweat or pass out, or at

the summit of Les Pleiades, the farthest we could get away that winter from school, or at

the convent on the windswept heights of Shanklin where Julia Margaret and old Lord Alfred

still lingered in the Freshwater mist, or at the Palazzo San Marco waiting for the last

vaparetto at midnight with the rain slowly turning to snow on the gondolas bobbing in the

waves, or at that rock climbing wall farmhouse in L'Abbaye not far from the haunted house

where the ghosts actually did come back, well, from time to time anyway, you remember

the bedtime stories, don't you? Einstein's Dreams. A big favorite of mine was the one

about the peach that pinkened and the old woman who got her rosy cheeks back again,

just in time, for her husband to join her as he was hauled back into the house in his pine

box in their life going backwards. Einstein's Dreams. Where is Mr. Lightman now? Well, I

can tell you; he's in Cambodia building a schoolhouse for twelve year olds at the moment.

Where is your teacher? Certainly not with his students on this dark, dark January night in

spite of two feet of glorious snow. Not in that saddle this winter, not reading to them from

his books, not listening to their dreams for their art and photography, not waking up to

their coffee and cereal bowls.

 

What happened is this. This morning your tall skinny professeur had opened an email from

Mr. Fellay, a student from his last class at Vevey. It was written in French and it made the

old professor blush in shame. Not that he couldn't read every word of it, no, it was not

that. Mais non. He blushed because he had not been in touch with his beloved students for

over half a year. Why had he abandoned them? Was he over-worked? Yes, there was the

big project ahead, a book and retrospective exhibition about his work called SAGA with an

introduction by Mr. Alan "Einstein" Lightman himself, and their teacher A. D. Coleman, and

Peter Gabriel, and Arthur Danto. Yes, that is why he had not written, he told himself. Too

busy getting the show planned, the book prepared; just too much to do was the reason

why. But he knew that wasn't true. His writing stopped because something profound had

been ripped from his soul.And it was the pain of that separation that had caused him to

slip underground, to let the clock tick through the fall, and to strike January off his

calendar for good. It was the pain of that separation that made him see the Swiss flag as a

flawed icon now, not the reasoned cross on a field of passion he always believed it to be,

but a flag all too transparent, just like the tattered American flag that Robert Frank, that

Swiss guy, had snapped at a picnic on the Fourth of July. On a red Mini Cooper, he

reasoned, a Swiss flag would no longer look too cool.

 

 

Well, fortunately, as luck and life would have it, Mr. Fellay's email brought him back to his

senses. There was a website address that was mentioned in the email. The old professor

opened it up and began to surf through the works of his students, works they had

accomplished after his tenure with them, yes, but works that nevertheless had all the feel

and touch and sense of who they were at heart, what they treasured, and what they

dreamed of and longed to accomplish one day. His eyes filled with happiness and pride for

them. One portfolio after the next took his breath away. Again, as he had always

considered them, he saw his students as his teachers.

 

 

The professor poured himself glass of red wine and began to cry. The educational crime of

the century had been committed. It was the end of January.

And the latest and greatest, with a quick translated transcript to go with it :

 

 

http://www.ou-t.ch/fin/TSR_TJ_25_04-450k_vevey.rm

 

http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSect=500001&bcid=0338711&vid=5428869

 

 

 

Back in Switzerland, the famous Vevey school of Photography is on the verge of crisis. Part of the students are on strike, they dissavow the orientation taken by the administration, that they see as too technical and not artistic enough. The students have been ordered to shut up, but today, they decide to speak.

 

[danae panchaud] The school indeed has a reputation that attracts people, but one you've been in it for two years, you become aware wether or not that reputation is justified or not. It used to be, it isn't anymore.

 

[voice-over] Here, the students came from the whole world to follow a unique program, where every other week, on top of ordinary professors, celebrities such as Duane Michals, a sacred monster of American photography, showed up to encourage students to find their own way. But in late 2003, the orientation of the school suddenly changed.

 

[anne-catherine lyon ] In reality, what was wanted from the start was for the Vevey school to continue on it's tradition of high quality on the technical front, and for it to be, again, specialised on this dimension, which is extremely strong there, and, when it comes to the purely artistic realm, but there's never one without the other, should be done at the Cantonal Arts school in Lausanne.

 

[voice-over] but this new orientation has been taken pretty badly. Out of 40 international teachers, only two came back, which is why a whole class has been on strike since last october.

 

[vlado alonso] We came to this school to multiply the experiences, to see people from all horizons, and it isn't the case anymore.

 

[luc chessex] For swiss photography, it's certainly an issue.

 

[voice-over] Why is it an issue ?

 

[luc chessex] because, once again, it's a window on the world, on the outside, on excellence, that has been closed.

 

[voice-over] When they got out of vevey, 3 out of 4 students found work. Like Matthias Bruggmann. It is a foreign teacher, a Czech, who allowed him to cover the war in Iraq.

 

[matthias bruggmann] the opportunity to learn with someone who knows how to build a story, who knows how to translate the suffering of individuals into pictures is indispensible.

 

[voice-over] an interpellation has just been made at the state level. According to it's author, Vevey is in risk of dying, because it doesn't correspond to the market anymore.

 

[laurent baillif] it's the teaching of the eye, it's that kind of teaching that is necessary in higher learning.

 

[voice over] After the second-year students, it's now the turn of the first year to threaten to leave the school.

 

(the highlighted text reads :"lack of program" "complete incoherence" and "the level is really too low")

 

The head of the school has refused to answer us, and forbids the students any contact with the press. On his side, the dean of students adresses himself to the state, we must, he says, "decontaminate this school of the bad subjects it still houses, ready to do anything to harm."

here's Arno Minkkinnen and Jacqueline Hassink's open letter on the question :

 

 

To the Administration, Photography Students and Photography Alumni of CEPV:

 

A business that does not listen to its clients cannot long serve the needs of its clients.

Subsitute "school" for "business" and "clients" for "students" and we have a good sense of

the sad, futile situation in Vevey. With the stated intention of strengthening the program

with new technical applications, the administration ignores the creative achievements of

the students and alumni as well as the long-standing efforts of the visiting faculty that

have made the Vevey school one of Europe's finest in photographic education today. I

strongly support the commencement of an open, equally balanced summit discussion

between the administration of the school and its dissenting students and visiting and

permanent faculty to reconsider the merits of the former program and how those tenets

might yet be formulated to advance both the technical and creative platforms of the

school's new teaching philosophy. Only through such soul searching give-and-take on all

sides can the Vevey school hope to look forward with pride once again to its revered

position as a world class institution. The current students have had the benefit of seeing

both programs in action and have voted with their feet. I cannot step foot inside Vevey

again until their voices are heard.

 

 

Arno Rafael Minkkinen

Professor of Art University of Massachusetts Lowell Docent, University of Art & Design

Helsinki, Former Visiting Professor École d'Arts Appliqués, Vevey

 

 

Jacqueline Hassink

Visiting lecturer at Harvard University Faculty VES, visiting Professor at Kyoto University for

Art and Design and Former Visiting Professor École d'Arts Appliqués, Vevey

i've had problems checking my ou-t email last night, and since 'twas pretty windy over

here, i'd guess there may have been a downtime. checked a few minutes ago, and

everything was up...

One (out of two) class of the Formation Professionnelle Superieure, the advanced program

of the Vevey School of Photography went on strike in early October to protest the lowering

of the quality of the education, consecutive to a political decision.

 

The faculty, who included, amongst many others, Sarah Moon, Duane Michals, Don

McCullin, Susan Meiselas, Antonin Kratochvil, Martin Parr and A.D Coleman, have voted

with their feet and will not come back.

 

Naturally, the students are upset.

 

The students who graduated from the program before it went down the drain are

petitionning to both support the current students and prevent the school from associating

their "names, work, or reputations", in any way, with the new program.

 

The grad's position is also supported, amongs others, by A.D Coleman (who's one of, if

not the, foremost photography critic in the US today...), Arno Minkkinnen (who runs the

photography program at Umass Lowell when he's not doing shows or books or lecturing

around the world), Robert Blake (think ICP...), as well as Arnaud Claas (who teaches at

Arles, the foremost french photography school).

 

Short version : If you were considering a photography school, look elsewhere than Vevey,

which is the oldest active photography school in europe.

 

there's intel, and work from the graduates which should allow measuring the quality of the

results, up at http://www.ou-t.ch