Nurturing Young Photographers

My semester class Media Art has begun with 20 bright young photographers. I always start with straight photography because I value the skill of composing an image without manipulation of any platform. The aesthetic of learning what you want to say or capture in your lens and capture it the way you want it to look like.
Yes- I love the apps on my I-phone and I use them often but I love it when a photograph I take elicits a “wow’.
I want my students to be on the receiving end of that “wow”.

So our journey begins with the random act of capturing a series of photographs of their world with the understanding I want them to explain why or at the very least think of why they capture the images.

I get a sense of the subjects they like to photograph and check their skill levels too. I then introduce all the mechanical and technical aspects of storing, renaming, and organizing all the images. We have a shared drive so we can view our progress and critique the photographs. The comments start out slowly but soon enough the students pick up the ideas and” rules” so they share true feed back.
Yes- I have even heard the “wow” or “I think this is great” and it is even backed up with a why they like it so much. We are on our way….