So Ya Be a Photographer!?

Wednesday night we had our first photo critique of the term for Advanced Studio Photography. As the images flashed by on the projector I began to wonder why most of the students in my class had even bothered to enroll in the class.  Perhaps they felt a great need to throw away $500.  Certainly it was money wasted by spending it on course fees for Advanced Studio Lighting.  As photos that were supposed to be our class and term assignments flashed by on the screen I was first astonished, and then shocked.  It was amateur hour.  It was a grotesque.  It was a photographic travesty.


For the record, up until now, I have always looked forward to the photo reviews and image critiques in my classes at Langara.  In Basic and Intermediate Digital Photography and the Introduction to Studio Lighting, there were many talented photographers with inspiring imagination, unique visions and a real thirst to better their art.  There was almost none of that on display or in evidence last night.  The work submitted was mostly shoddy, poorly planned and conceived and amateurishly executed.  These people were not photographers, they were butchers!  And damn poor butchers at that.


As Greg Blue critiqued the work, the rest of the class was subjected to the most incredible litany of whining, sniveling and excuse making I have ever heard.  People blamed their poor shots on bad equipment, poverty and even -- yes, even -- on a lack of intelligence.  How else do you tell the instructor with a straight face, "I didn't understand the assignment", or, "I tried to fake that shot"!!!  


When Greg suggested that re-shoots were in order, and that people would need to re-submit work, the moaning and wailing that went up was incredible.  Worse than that, we wasted valuable class time that we will never get back on people who don't give the slightest damn about whether or not they improve as photographers and artists, either technically or visually.  These future wedding hacks are the same people who come to class late and want to leave early.  They bitch about having to take shots outside of class or book studio time.  These people shouldn't be allowed to own cameras.  And they certainly shouldn't be allowed in a photography program.  They are fakers, con artists and miscreants.  There should be some kind of Photo Gulag that they could be shipped to so that they could end their days blaming their predicament on their equipment...


Cactus with my Apple 3Gs iPhone.  I'm exhausted.  Off to bed.


-- Vince Hemingson