You should go to photo school if you want structured learning. Groundwork from the fundamentals to the bigger concepts. It will move too slowly for many of you, too fast for others. There are lots of great programs, worldwide.
If you don’t do better with structured learning and you are highly motivated and prefer real world experience, don’t go. Instead, teach yourself, take workshops, get mentors, read books, build your support network, work for other people. And most importantly take a helluva lot of photographs. Dig the long ditch that it takes to learn to make a living with photographs.
If this is too simple a post for you, then go to photo school.
Don’t just get mentors, get the right mentors. The question to ask is a potential mentor is “who would you want as your mentor?”
Zack Arias
chase jarvis 😀
@zackarias, @chasejarvis, and @primejunta
This post in a nutshell describes one of the major pitfalls of teaching yourself… the unknown unknowns.
The three photographers mentioned are perfectly competent, but are notorious as much for their web presence as much as they are for their photography. The blog community that has formed around those mentioned here and David Hobby is quite inbread in a way. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to aspire to be like those guys, they do a great job, but it’s a very inward looking attitude. Zach, David, Chase, Joe etc. are all good photographers, but more than that they are great entrepreneurs that have very intelligently used social media to their advantage… no offence guys, but none of you are (yet?) what I would call ‘one of the greats’. Aspiring photographers should draw influence from the valuable lessons that these guys teach (for free), but should not fall into the trap of thinking that they are the be all and end all of photography. Bresson, Maplethorpe, Wall, Bourdin, Kertez, Sherman, Parr, McCullin, Sander, Evans, Frank etc… these are some of the protagonists that have shaped the medium.
This is the crux of the matter really, self-teaching is all well and good, but you can’t possibly know what information you actually need to learn and what you don’t. I know plenty of self-taught photographers that are more than capable, but in my experience they lack some of the academic underpinning that those that go to art-school have… That’s not to say that this is always the case, but most of the blog content out there that you may be teaching yourself from is going to be equipment and technique focussed, as this is what is of most interest.
I guess my point is, if you want to teach yourself anything you have to be incredibly disciplined. Don’t just read the articles that interest you, read EVERYTHING! Remember there’s no right or wrong way to do anything. Read up on critical theory, semiotics and art history, they are just as important as lighting setups or gear reviews (probably more important actually).
Exactly!
you nailed it.
Chase Jarvis, Joe McNally, and Jeremy Cowart…
I am so glad to see you post this. The truth is that I decided a while ago that school was the right root for me. I have had many photographer friends that are going the self taught root that it is a waste of my money, and that I can learn everything I need to on my own. But you in this simple post summed up what I couldn’t explain to others, I do better with structured learning.
I am an art major in Photography concentration and believe me when I say that being formally educated in photography gives you a HUGE edge in the industry!
It wasn’t a college degree, though, was it? ROUTE. And that’s just the beginning. Unbelievable.
Been thinking about this all day, sad man that I am. I think you’re being a bit harsh on Optic (may I call you Optic?), Anna. She’s a visual person, like you probably, and writing may not come as easily to her as it does you. After all, it’s a quick comment on a blog, not a formal paper. Let’s try to get on nicely together :).
Great post, Im taking the do it yourself route 🙂 Have a great day!
Couldn’t have been put better. I am definitely the latter 🙂
I choose to not go to school. I am glad that Pro’s are saying this like Joey L. said it as well. I like the ideal of using mentors, never thought about that before.
I really like your post. However if you want your Masters in photography education can only help you achieve that. Well said article. I like the simplicity.