Re: [Leica] College

["Barney Quinn, Jr." <barney@ncep.noaa.gov>]

Hi,

When I went to college - which was in the early 60's - all students in the J school
were required to have a dual major - Political Science, Economics, Physics,
whatever - to go along with their Journalism studies. One also had to take a broad
range of courses within the realm of journalism. One had to take photography,
graphic arts, news writing, advertising, magazine, newspaper, publishing law, and
so forth. This approach always made a good deal of sense to me. Things change as
time goes on, and the best way to position one's self to deal with these changes is
to get a strong grounding in as many basics as you can. Most people today change
careers two or three times during the course of their lives.

Perhaps an example will help.  When I was in school Print Journalism and Broadcast
Journalism were very different disciplines which didn't intersect all of that
often. Times have changed. We now have media conglomerates. Today the same reporter
may well have to file the same story in print, web, TV, and Radio formats. The best
way to position yourself to make the changes you will have to make during the
course of your working life is a good fundamental education. It's also worth
pointing out that one has to work and function in a society as well as make a
living in it. My view, which is quite un-fashionable, is that a good general
education is quite helpful in this regard.

It might help to give some thought to the shape of photojournalism five and ten
years down the road. Life magazine is out of business. It may well become a sub-set
of TV journalism, where still photographs are simply grabbed and printed from some
form of digitized motion pictures. Who knows?

Barney

"B. D. Colen" wrote:

> The truth? DO NOT MAJOR IN PHOTOJOURNALISM. DO NOT MAJOR IN JOURNALISM.
>
> Get yourself a real education. Major in political science. Major in
> history. Major in a foreign language.  Major in sociology. Get some
> worthwhile background in something. Take all the photo and related
> journalism courses you can as electives.Go join the staff of the student
> paper the day you get to school. See if there are local papers you can
> string for. And start applying early for summer internships at
> newspapers and magazines.
>
> I offer this advice as someone who did end up majoring in journalism -
> but ended up with an equal number of hours in political science and took
> every American History course my university offered. I also offer this
> advice after spending 23 years in daily journalism - as a reporter and
> editor - and as someone who now teaches both news writing and
> documentary photography at MIT - which, needless to say, does NOT have a
> journalism major or department.
>
> And to those who will tell you that you will get a great job if you only
> go to Missouri, or Syracuse - do some research and see what you can find
> out about how many contract photographers for Time, Newsweek, or
> National Geographic, went to those schools or majored in PJ...Or how may
> of the staffers at The New York Times, The Washington Post, or any of
> the other major papers took that route.
>
> Want to be a photojournalist? Go take pictures. Every day. Of every kind
> of subject. Take photo courses and master the technical end of things.
> Take a good photo history course and a couple of good art history
> courses.
>
> BUT DON'T MAJOR IN PHOTOJOURNALISM...
>
> And good luck!
>
> B. D.
>
> Majoring in journalism, or, Godforbid, photojournalism, is the
> equivalent of going to college and paying $120,000 to major in plumbing
> for four years.
>
> ShadCat11@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 07/23/2001 12:51:12 PM, you wrote:
> >
> > <<Ok I have a quick one for you, and though it isn't directly leica related
> > its close enough.  I know that some of you arn't professional photographers
> > but those of you who are and have formal training in photography I would
> > like your input.
> >
> > I have to go to my college counselor today and Im guessing that he will ask
> > me If I have any preferences of the colleges I want to go to.  I asked the
> > photographers at my local newspaper and they gave me a list of a few
> > colleges but no decisive best college for photojournalism.  I have heard a
> > lot about University of Missouri in the past but have also heard that they
> > have been slipping.  So for the question: What is the best college for
> > photojournalism (not studio stuff)?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > David Degner
> >
> > >>
> >
> > While my training in photography was informal, I have been doing it
> > seriously/professionally for a very long time, during the course of which I
> > have associated with many formally trained photograpers in different fields
> > and have taught classes, myself.
> >
> > My opinions, based on the before, is that a systematic course of study can
> > save some time in learning the craft and techniques.  But I also believe that
> > a good liberal arts education NOT specializing in photography can do more for
> > your ability to master photojournalism than concentrating on the tech stuff.
> >
> > It's not rocket science.  The chops can be picked up readily enough, but a
> > really good photographer operates from a sensibility that encompasses
> > information from every direction; history, languages, psychology, science,
> > name it.  Specializing in photography trains a person to be a shooter,
> > considered glamorous by some but not me.
> >
> > One of the better photojournalists of my acquaintance is Amy Sanchetta (last
> > seen at AP), whose work is invariably probing, insightful, sensitive, tough
> > and pictorially, quite elegant.  When asked by her admirers (well, my wife
> > and I) about her education, Amy remarked that she stayed away from her
> > college photography department.  This, of course, is only one approach, and
> > many graduates of photography programs have done well.  But photojournalism
> > is involved (or should be) in so much more than photography.
> >
> > Two photographers were discussing their day.  One said "I saw a bundle of
> > rags on a park bench, and it turned out to be an old lady.  She told me that
> > once she had been an heiress, but the family lost all its money and
> > eventually she became just another poor homeless person."
> > "Poor woman," said the other.  "What did you give her?"
> > "Well, " came the reply, "It was sunny, so I gave her 1/250th @ f16."
> >
> > Allen Zak
> >