My net friend Erin recently brought a new camera and with passion and abandon took to recording her world. Now they are not works of art by any stretch of the imagination and I'm sure the pros could find a ton of things wrong with each photo she took. What sets her apart is the "passion" with which she engages the viewer and that is half the battle of any photo. Another net friend Jennifer recently went to the Philippines and returned with a set of photo that are also very good...well crafted, nicely composed and speaking volumes about her trip. Indeed, if you've never been to the Philippines, they capture it in great style and tell quite a story...both passionate and rich. Again I'm sure that any pro would try to pick them apart for flaws and to them I say...Leave Them Alone! Neither of these people (as far as I know) are professional or working photographers, but they have one aspect of photography down pat...the passion for it!
So why am I talking about passion in photography? Recently I had to interview 12 photographers for 3 postions available with our magazines. Being the chief photographer, that job fell to me. The 12 finalist were brought to Europe and interviewed and studied. Its a plum of a job being offered. However, the current crop of wanna-be's left a lot to desired. 11 of the 12 had graduated from art school or some college as art or design majors. Its no easy task going through 12 interviews, looking at 12 portfolios and trying to calm 12 nervous people. One thing I immediately noticed was the lack of commerical training. Their portfolios consisted of fuzzy black and white prints or off-color prints at odd angles and only 1 showed any commerical- looking work at all. This got me curious. Why weren't they better prepared? Added to that was the fact that at least 10 of them even lacked the passion for photography and when I asked why they wanted to work as a photographer the answer I got was "for the money". Now I'm not saying its not nice to get a great paying job, but this one requires a lot more in the way of artistry then most. I had them all together for dinner and asked what kind of teachers they had...and found to my amazement that they were universally BAD!
Their teachers for the most part ignored all the aspects of commerical work and instead brain-washed these young people into submission but making them learn the teacher's "vision"...in other words there was very few pieces of work that were the visions of the students. I hate this and art and photography teachers should teach techniques and stay out of the visionary department. I suppose the adage that "Those that can do, those that can't teach" might be true in this case. And I find this in so many other fields as well. Students are not prepared for the real world adequately. Fuzzy picture might sell in some SoHo art gallery (or not) but in advertising the adage is "If you can't see it, you can't sell it". Its not rocket science and I blame the teachers that should have instructed them better and not try to impart their own brand of failed art on such impressionable people. Now that doesn't mean there are not some fine teachers out there. In fact one of my favorites is a photographer friend Ken Rockwell who teaches you just about anything you want to know about photography but leaves the creativity up to you. (You should read his photographic satire.) Teachers, professors and other assorted experts, its great to teach a subject, but stay the hell out of people's heads!
Sadly, I only hired one photogapher and she was the only one that learned photography on her own and never made it to college. Her work was concise and colorful and her only drawnback was that she is painfully shy (not a great thing for a fashion photographer). But not to worry. We will beat that aspect of her personality out of her in due course. As for the others, I tried to help each find a path that might suit them better. And admonished each that without passion, art is wasted...even if it is commercial.
