Have any of you gotten a BFA in photography?

[Roger Hicks]

Not all people have stories or a wealth of information from which to delve at a familial level. Everyone doesn’t have the luxury of being surrounded by others to discuss books and or experiences with. People come from semiliterate families, abusive families, families without fathers, without mothers, families riddled with addiction or mental illness—less dramatically, sometimes your family does read.

Etymology is rather mundane because all it requires is a dictionary and an excessive amount of time, and the origin of words bears little relation to their current usage. Semantic change is interesting, but it doesn’t prove or disprove a validity of ideas. It may be interesting in a sort of pub-wisdom sense, but that’s about it. I would much rather have discussions with someone who has “been there done that” that someone who hasn’t--regardless of the subject.

I understood your temporal argument completely, but I still reject it because you are presupposing a great deal. i.e. those people have never read the book before, those people are at the same stage of understanding as the rest of the people involved, those people are all heterosexual white people born in North Hampshire, England or are at the same stage in their life etc etc etc. Also it is odd that a person would embrace the knowledge of Aunt Nelly, while rejecting the knowledge of Professor Whoever. It makes more sense, to me, to take everyone for what they are worth.

ok,

off to bed. Thanks for the discussion

Hope you slept well!

Indeed, everyone's families are different, which only reaffirms what I said before:what works for one will not necessarily work for another.

The 'etymology' was a joke. To save you the trouble of scrolling back, when I've been accused of being an expert I tend to remind people of the etymology I learned at a school speech day: it comes from 'ex' meaning 'a has-been' and 'spurt' meaning 'a drip under pressure'. Not exactly a dictionary job!

Fair comment on the temporal argument, but again, it's a matter of whom you meet, where. And whom you choose to meet. Nowhere do I say I reject anyone's knowedge; just that I (sometimes) look for it in different places.

Thanks to you too for the reply. It is often from those whose views we find least immediately congenial that we learn the most

Cheers,

R.

 

[dogbunny]

The 'etymology' was a joke. To save you the trouble of scrolling back, when I've been accused of being an expert I tend to remind people of the etymology I learned at a school speech day: it comes from 'ex' meaning 'a has-been' and 'spurt' meaning 'a drip under pressure'. Not exactly a dictionary job!

Thanks to you too for the reply. It is often from those whose views we find least immediately congenial that we learn the most

Cheers,

R.

Sorry I missed the joke. I'm sure it won't be the last time.

http://www.etymonline.com/

This one was a lifesaver when I was doing my graduate studies.

My wife tells me I need to be a little more congenial. I'm fairly opinionated, unfortunately this sometimes comes across as animus at times.

. . . Okay no rain today, off to--would you believe it-- take pictures around the city.

Cheers,

db

(sorry for the thread jacking folks)

 

[robklurfield]

This thread is wild, having veered off-topic so far and wide. Some great stuff here, but my question is: have we helped the OP with his question?

I knew a guy who went to film school at UCLA (don't remember with it was grad or undergrad) who liked to say the experience was on par with studying to be a vacuum cleaner repairman.

 

[John Elder]

Roger Hicks you state that studying photography is "easy/enjoyable" implying that it is not hard work, somewhat akin to a vacation. That is a total crock as far as photogrphy studies at RIT. The degree at RIT was very challenging and I learned alot. The best teacher I ever had in any curriculum was at RIT, Jim Megargee, and I have 3 degrees, the last being the BFA in photography from RIT. I also have a prior law degree from Syracuse College of Law. Believe it or not the JD was MUCH easier than the degree at RIT. Since you haven't studied photography in a formal setting you don't have first hand knowledge of whether it is easy or not. What we do know about you is you chose a course of study "reading the law" which you didn't use and which seems to me wasted your time doing. The OP has not asked for financial advice and I don't understand why everybody feels obliged to give him such advice. The days of being an apprentice are long gone. You need credentials to get in the door. Most professional self taught photographers i have met have gaping holes in their knowledge of photography. For the most part they are good at what they do, but ask them to switch to a different type of photography and they are not prepared. I came out of RIT very prepared. RIT got me a summer internship for the state of Maryland doing both nature photography and photojournalism. Three months after graduation from RITwhile working as a professional photographer in DC as a staff photographer for a corporation, an RIT professor recommended me for "The First Eddie Adams Annual Workshop" into which I was accepted. So, my photography education helped me a great deal both in aquiring knowledge and in getting a job right after I got my degree. Further, RIT is known by commercial photographers in NYC whom recruit RIT grads. For example, Gregory Heisler assisted Arnold Newman after he left RIT.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Roger Hicks you state that studying photography is "easy/enjoyable" implying that it is not hard work, somewhat akin to a vacation. That is a total crock as far as photogrphy studies at RIT. The degree at RIT was very challenging and I learned alot. The best teacher I ever had in any curriculum was at RIT, Jim Megargee, and I have 3 degrees, the last being the BFA in photography from RIT. I also have a prior law degree from Syracuse College of Law. Believe it or not the JD was MUCH easier than the degree at RIT. Since you haven't studied photography in a formal setting you don't have first hand knowledge of whether it is easy or not. What we do know about you is you chose a course of study "reading the law" which you didn't use and which seems to me wasted your time doing. The OP has not asked for financial advice and I don't understand why everybody feels obliged to give him such advice. The days of being an apprentice are long gone. You need credentials to get in the door. Most professional self taught photographers i have met have gaping holes in their knowledge of photography. For the most part they are good at what they do, but ask them to switch to a different type of photography and they are not prepared. I came out of RIT very prepared. RIT got me a summer internship for the state of Maryland doing both nature photography and photojournalism. Three months after graduation from RITwhile working as a professional photographer in DC as a staff photographer for a corporation, an RIT professor recommended me for "The First Eddie Adams Annual Workshop" into which I was accepted. So, my photography education helped me a great deal both in aquiring knowledge and in getting a job right after I got my degree. Further, RIT is known by commercial photographers in NYC whom recruit RIT grads. For example, Gregory Heisler assisted Arnold Newman after he left RIT.[/QUOTE]

Dear John,

Re-read what I said, and you'll find that I didn't refer specifically to photography, nor to RIT: just to easy/enjoyable degrees. I am sure that some colleges are far more difficult than others, but equally, some are quite undemanding.

Note also that 'easy/enjoyable' was meant to be read disjunctively, in the sense of 'easy (but not necessarily enjoyable)' or 'enjoyable (but not necessarily easy)'.

It seems to me a reasonable rejoinder to the OP's query to tack on gratuitous advice, as many have. After all, he doesn't have to read it, or follow it. I'd certainly have been very interested, at his age and in his situation, to see as many different opinions from as many different people as have appeared in this thread. Maybe he'd care to let us know what he thought.

If you notice, in post 4 the first thing I did was to answer his question directly: When I applied -- four decades ago -- I had to prove I could draw (they weren't worried about painting) as well as take pictures. I assumed that others would relate their own experiences in the same way.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Doug]

Gentlemen, please be respectful and avoid personal attacks; some editing here in aid of civility...

 

[tlitody]

there's an old saying: "Those that can do and those that can't teach (or write)"
Which loosely translated means, sure go for your chosen vocation with your eyes wide open but be sure you check the career and sucess levels of the tutors you will get if you want to avoid being led down a dead end. There are colleges with highly sucessful practising photographers who also teach and others full of ex or wannabe photographers scraping a living.