Remaining Teachable

I remember when I found out that our Photography course was going to include black and white photography and printmaking. I had some preconceived notions about black and white photography. I could not figure out why we would be working with antiquated technology with 35mm film when today's world is so deeply rooted in digital technology. In retrospect, I would not trade my black and white photography and printmaking experience for anything. There is something beautiful about the art of black and white photography that cannot be explained. Rather, it must be experienced.

There were a couple of students enrolled in my class that had previously taken photography classes and claimed to have digital photography experience. Suffice it to say that the experience they had did not help them to succeed. Those students did not do nearly as well as students, such as myself, that had no practical photography experience beforehand. There is a lesson in all of this. The moral of the story is that in order to learn and progress, we must remain teachable.

I have barely scratched the surface when it comes to photography skill. When you have little knowledge to build upon, your learning curve is the steepest. When I look at how far many of my classmates and myself progressed over the course of a semester, it is amazing. As a beginner, there are two ways to learn photography. One is in the classroom and the other is out in the field. I am of the opinion that the two types of learning are symbiotic. I do not believe I could have grown nearly as much if I was just getting information off the internet and going out shooting. The feedback and the ability to ask questions in the classroom have proven invaluable.

I feel that taking graduate level courses, engaging in some self-directed online learning and practice in the field will help me to continue learning at a rapid pace. Seeing other people's work gives me inspiration, but I believe that there are still some technical aspects of photography that I can build upon to help me progress well beyond where I am with the art at the moment.