HU: Universary of Calgary seeks film camera donations for art students

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http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/neighbours/story.html?id=760aa7e9-2cad-4f9d-9b70-c9af1cf8024f

This is strictly an FYI, I have no involvement in this.

I hesitated to post this, because in the past when I've posted similar requests from schools, I've been heckled and a bunch of snarky remarks about how rich the students are, why should anyone give cameras away for free, etc. So frankly - if you aren't interested, just don't bother responding to this post. Because I really don't care what anyone thinks about it, I'm just trying to do a mitzvah here.

U of C seeks film camera donations for art students

Neighbours

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Has your film SLR camera been gathering dust ever since you bought a digital camera? Consider donating your old camera to the University of Calgary's department of art.

Art students study silver/chemical photography, or wet process photography, as part of the photography curriculum, but there aren't enough film cameras to go around.

"Accessibility is critical for new students who need to use a film camera but cannot afford one," department head Arthur Nishimura says, "and the department currently only has three cameras to lend to (20) students. They take turns borrowing them, which, needless to say, is not the ideal situation for our students."

Learning to shoot, develop and print film is an important aspect of photographic education, he says.

"Film photography and digital photography are not the same, and we feel that students gain fundamental skills and knowledge from learning how to work with the older materials and processes before moving on to digital photography."

Photographers no longer using their film SLRs are asked to consider making a gift of them -- in good working condition -- of any make and model and other equipment. The cameras, lenses, and accessories would be signed out by the department of art to photography students to facilitate completion of course requirements.

Cameras can be dropped off at the department of art's main office (Art Building, Room 612) or call 220-5251.
© The Calgary Herald 2008
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Bill, you read Canadian newspapers? Are you secretly one of us? You don't regularly use the expression "better than a kick to the head with a frozen mukluk," do you? 😀

Thanks for the heads up.
 
Rafael said:
Bill, you read Canadian newspapers? Are you secretly one of us? You don't regularly use the expression "better than a kick to the head with a frozen mukluk," do you? 😀

Thanks for the heads up.
Click to expand...

I'm in a suburb of Detroit. Windsor, Ontario is 15 miles south of me, and I get CBC on cable TV (when I bother watching TV, which is not often).

I like to tease Canadians unmercifully, but in all honesty, I think Canada is terrific, I love to visit when I can, and poutine is one of life's secret pleasures. I even like the beer.

But in truth - I just am a heavy news junkie, and I don't have time to search the papers and online news. I have search agents that bring me the things I find useful and and I post them when I find something that fascinates me or catches my interest. "Film Photography" is one of my search terms...
 
sienarot said:
Damn it, if I didn't have a habit of selling cameras I didn't need, I'd donate something! I also happen to be an employee of the U of C too 🙂
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Can you get a mailing address where I can send a camera? I was going to call, but I don't have access to a non-employer telephone during the hours they might be open. I think I can help out a bit.
 
sienarot said:
Hmm.... Maybe I'll throw one of my Argus C3's their way....
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Might be interesting to see what use they make of it, but I read this "Photographers no longer using their film SLRs...", so I figured I'd send them an old Vivitar SLR with a K-mount zoom and see if that works for them.
 
I posted this elsewhere a couple of months ago, same thing happening here in the UK

5th march 08

I overheard this chap and his colleague discussing manual SLR cameras, and had to engage him in conversation to correct some of the statements they were making. He turned out he is a university lecturer

They were buying second hand manual SlRs and lenses so this years students could go from film to wet print, which must be a good thing

However they didn't know which of the cameras on offer were manual and which lenses would fit them, I had to point out which were suitable, which is a bad thing

From the conversation I got an outline of thr course it seems MF was unlikely and LF out of the question, Munsell and the Zone sys were alien concepts, all of which left me feeling old and a bit redundant.

I took his picture as he was explaining how much faster a DSLR was in comparison to my RF, well he was actualy only part way through the sentance.


I'll apologise if you suould see this, however I'd just point out I did, in fact, get the shot ;D

2313156624_072e694e24.jpg



http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3040/2313156624_072e694e24_b.jpg
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Bill

Thanks for posting this. I think it is a very good idea that can put old film cameras to a practical use instead of just gathering dust. I do, however, find the request a bit amusing as it comes from a university in likely the richest province in Canada. I guess the government wealth has yet to trickle down to universities there. Still a good idea though.

Bob
 
"Accessibility is critical for new students who need to use a film camera but cannot afford one," department head Arthur Nishimura says, "and the department currently only has three cameras to lend to (20) students. They take turns borrowing them, which, needless to say, is not the ideal situation for our students."



One this I find very troublesome, is the fact that students pay between $4000-5000 a year on tuition for these Fine Arts/Interdisciplinary Arts programs and don't even have access to tools that the University would otherwise supply them. 3 Cameras for 20 students? When I thought this out in my head it came out very eloquently, and at the moment I feel like I am bordering on 'rant', but for all the Money Arts Students contribute to universities (on a departmental scale) there shouldn't be a 17 film camera discrepancy for students within a given program. I'm a student at the University of Ottawa in Environmental Studies and Geography and even I was turned away from the small darkroom faculties on campus, even when I offered to pay them money, because there just wasn't even enough room for the students in the program.

I'll stop here for now, but I will say, Calgary students, if I truly had one to spare, I'd send it over. At any rate, 17 is a truly attainable number, I believe it can get there.
 
Thanks for being gentle with your comments, corazon and Nikon Bob. I mean that, not being snarky with you.

While I can't comment on how 'rich' the area is or how much money the school kids have, this was exactly what made me hesitate to even post this request. The last time I did, it was for a public high school in some wealthy area of the US, I forget where, and I was excoriated for having the gall to post a plea for film cameras from a school where everyone was rolling in dough and wasn't I about the most rotten ******* that ever lived for asking?

I ended up deleting the entire thread, as I recall. Totally disgusting.

The point, I guess, is not what the school or the kids can or cannot afford. I don't know and truly don't care. That's not my problem.

What I do is help when and as I can. I generally don't publicize it - my giving is normally done in secret, I'll even deny doing it. In cases like these, I figure some of the motor-mouths who pound their chests about film being so superior to digital and who have large collections as I do might consider donating a film camera to a school, the better to convert a n00bie to the 'film way'. I generally get the most static from the die-hard film fans. They want everyone to use film, but they ain't giving away nothing to nobody.

Sorry, mini-rant. I'll stop now. Thanks to everyone who considers helping this school/students.
 
At that point want should not forget if the people preparing the courses get the money assigned they had asked for. It could be a school where the staircase railings are made of gold, if someone says there's no money in it for the "readirionalist photography" you simply lack the means. I've worked and I am workin for very very rich companies and you'd be surprised how often they use the sentence "we have no money".
Good idea! I am living in Europe otherwise ...and am planning myself something in that direction
 
Calgary may be in a wealthy province but that doesn't mean the government throws gobs of money at university arts programs, and it doesn't mean all its residents are wealthy by default. My brother and his young family live in Alberta and they aren't exactly sending my cheques from their superfluous income every month!
Anyway I doubt the university would make such a request if it wasn't necessary. It can be tough for students and schools to make ends meet no matter where they are.
 
It sounds like a good cause. I work in higher education (in the USA) and can imagine how hard it might be to get purchasing funding for a film-based photography program these days, no matter how well justified it may be. I could complain about academic spending practices and priorities all day, but even I wouldn't want to listen to me. 🙂

(Personally, given the option, I'd prefer to send a spare camera directly to a needy student. I suspect it'd be better cared for, and it might provide an incentive for them to keep taking photos even after the end of their class. Or they could pass it along to another student in turn. That's just me, though.)
 
Bill,

I think it is very nice of you to send them something. Some of the comments about the school taking a lot of money from the students and not giving them anything do ring true to me as a former art student (I have a BFA from Indiana University). I remember paying not only outrageous tuition but being charged a lab fee for all of my fine arts classes (about $80 a class!) and being given NO materials at all. No film, no chemicals, no paper, no paint, no canvas, no equipment to borrow. All there was in all the art classes I took was a set of old enlargers in the darkroom and some ancient beat-up wooden easels in the painting classroom. Any other materials or equipment we needed we had to buy....the lab fee was a cash cow for the university and the school admitted to us that it wasn't even spent to pay the salaries of the art profs...it was diverted to other depeartments. What a scam. They soaked the students for thousands in tuition and hundreds in fraudulent lab fees and then begged for donations from the community when they needed equipment. And since I live in a community where NO ONE cares about anyone but himself, no one EVER donated and the students got nothing. Like I said, it is really nice of you to donate to help the students...they'll appreciate it a lot. It is also really crappy that the students are being cheated by the school.
 
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