Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/11/26

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Subject: Re: [Leica] OT:Photo grad school.
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 16:24:49 -0500
References: <3f.2477cd7.2932de66@aol.com> <v04011702b8274c27648d@[66.81.44.219]> <v04011703b828452046ad@[66.81.51.16]> <005d01c176bd$3f025ae0$90466cd8@gov.nt.ca>

Quite frankly, having someone teach photography  based on anything else 
would be, at best, pretty silly...;-)

After all, would you rather be taught photography - as in using a camera 
as a tool with which to make images - by a Chris Killip, or by someone 
with a PhD. in photography, awarded for a thesis entitled "Socialist 
realism and its impact on portrait photography in Berlin in the third 
week of August, 1929?" ;-)

B. D.

Tim Atherton wrote:

> Chris Killip - one of my all time favourite Brit photographers (subject of a
> new Phaidon 55 book) teaches photography at Harvard, Professor of Visual
> Studies
> based mainly on his credentials as a photographer, going by an interview I
> read a few years ago.
> 
> Tim A
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Guy Bennett" <gbennett@lainet.com>
> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 12:36 PM
> Subject: Re: [Leica] OT:Photo grad school.
> 
> 
> 
>>>Guy Bennett wrote:
>>>
>>>>>Though much of this activity is
>>>>>
>>>>without significance in the "real world," real world values are
>>>>
> meaningless
> 
>>>>in the academy: it is a self-validating system that generally does not
>>>>recognize non-academic achievement.
>>>>
>>>Actually, my experience has been precisely the opposite - While I agree
>>>entirely that virtually no one in the 'real world' gives a rat's behind
>>>about your academic credentials once you get past your first job, I have
>>>found that some folks in academia will grant 'equivalence' to certain
>>>real-world accomplishments when hiring for positions in academia. At
>>>both Harvard Medical School, where I was briefly the Director of Media
>>>Affairs and had an academic appointment, and at MIT, where I teach, my
>>>credentials in the world of journalism are viewed by academics as being
>>>the equivalent of a doctorate in their world. The bottom line, I
>>>believe, is that at these particular institutions the academics have
>>>enough self-confidence to understand that they know what they know, and
>>>that I know what I know, and what I know is as much of value to students
>>>as what they know. (Does that make sense:-) )
>>>B. D.
>>>
>>
>>It definitely does. And your case is a great example of how the "real
>>world" can and should exist within the rarified world of the academy. From
>>my experience, however, this is rather exceptional. I've been teaching the
>>humanities - languages and literature - at the university level for about
>>14 years now (first at UCLA and various community colleges in the L.A.
>>
> area
> 
>>and, for the last 2-3 years, at Otis College of Art and Design) and have
>>never seen anyone with less than a PhD given a teaching appointment in
>>
> that
> 
>>field. Even in community colleges, a full-time teacher in the humanities
>>with only a MA is becoming something of an anachronism.
>>
>>Guy
>>--
>>To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html
>>
>>
> 
> --
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> 
> 


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Replies: Reply from "Tim Atherton" <tim@KairosPhoto.com> (Re: [Leica] OT:Photo grad school.)
In reply to: Message from ARTHURWG@aol.com (Re: [Leica] OT:Photo grad school.)
Message from Guy Bennett <gbennett@lainet.com> (Re: [Leica] OT:Photo grad school.)
Message from Guy Bennett <gbennett@lainet.com> (Re: [Leica] OT:Photo grad school.)
Message from "Tim Atherton" <tim@KairosPhoto.com> (Re: [Leica] OT:Photo grad school.)