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.
I love this, simple & direct! My thoughts exactly, I was just explaining this to a friend.
that ditch can be a bitch at times
I learned a lot while going to school in Dawson College, Montreal.
I would say the photo classes were not the most important part of my learning, but the ones that teach you about laws, finance and all those details you need to know but might not think about when you learn on your own now are really helping me now.
Self taught here. If I had the time I would probably take business and marketing classes. As for taking classes for photography, I suppose I would always learn and benefit from them, but I have a fear of narrowing my mind in the world of creativity when someone tells me that “this” is the right way to do it. Workshops, webinars, and ‘reading, practice, reading, practice’, is my school of choice.
I am one who was self taught and had mentors but then burned out. I am lucky in that I have the GI Bill plus grants to use and it covers a BFA in Photography and art, so it seems sort of silly not to utilize that “Clue x 4” swinging at me. If nothing else, it gets puts me on a schedule and gives me more structure and will teach me more patience. I hope.
It will also be an excellent addition to the networking II have already been doing. If I get bored, I will just have to give myself some personal challenges to work on. I already watch every online workshop I can find, including creativeLIVE. The one huge positive to the intern phase is I get to intern with a pro in the business. I know I am hoping for a certain alumni from my program… that experience would be priceless.
So for me, school will be opening some doors a but easier than doing it solo. But I know full well I will be augmenting heavily.