Re: [Leica] Photo education

[DFangon@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/23/02 6:38:22 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
bdcolen@earthlink.net writes:

<< Most of my students had very rudimentary photo history backgrounds, if 
they had any at all, and they wrote some damn interesting papers. >>

I'm sure they drew from their knowledge and experiences of other disciplines 
like literature and politics and philosophy etc.  These are MIT students 
after all and they can write pretty good stuff on chicken or golf for 
example, if that's the assignment even if they are vegetarians or have not 
played a single round of golf.  
 
<< I believe there is a book entitled "Photography for Dummies" that can 
answer
all those questions in a single afternoon's setting - along with hundreds of
other very basic books that can do the same thing.  >>

This is being a bit too simplistic, don't you think?  I don't know of 
anybody, much less a dummy who can learn photography basics in one 
afternoon......from a book.  

Please make no mistake.  It's a great course.  That's why I took the time to 
read the entire syllabus (I even imagined myself trying to tackle the 
challenges needed to pass the course).  Like I said in my original post, it's 
a course I would love to take.  But then, if I am struggling about what lens 
to use, and what filters to buy, and what B&W film to stick with, and if I 
want to master tonal range and the zone system, then a course tailored for 
beginners (as experts, many tend to forget the battle they went through to 
overcome the steep learning curve needed) is more apropos to my needs.  It is 
very difficult to be in a documentary or photojournalistic frame of mind if 
one is at a stage where one is still struggling with his/her equipment.

<< to give them a sense of why we take photos in the first place >>

We have varied purposes when we start out.  Some just like to take picutures 
of their newly born child, some want to learn so they can take good pictures 
of their girlfriend, I remember I went into photography thinking it's agreat 
way to meet girls.  But as we improve, our reasons for remaining in 
photography change.  We grow so to speak. Some just collect cameras, while 
others pursue more artistic endeavors while even others remain simple in 
their desires to capture a smile or a fleeting warm moment etc.  My point?  
While it is very interesting as well as intellectually satisfying, a 
discussion on Sontag is a little bit heavy for beginners who are doing P&S of 
their new born.

Let me say in closing, more power to you and your course.  I am very 
intrigued by it and how I wish I can have the opp to attend MIT and enroll in 
your course but I am already too old and overeducated (IMO) to be doing any 
of that.  Right now, I am in the process of zeroing in on what B&W film I 
should use for the type of photography I like to do and which filters to 
invest in.

Dante
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