Back to School Thoughts

As I head back to school, I can’t help but think of what my next steps will be after I graduate. NYFA, New York Foundation for the Arts is a philanthropic association for the promotion and financial support of individual artists. Their Web site includes extensive national listings  of jobs, internships, upcoming events and submission opportunities  in the art world. If you’re an up and coming artists looking into further education, check out their art articles for art students preparing for undergraduate  and graduate work. These articles will help you figure out how to approach putting your portfolio together as well as how to decide on a program that suits you.

Evidence Photography School

When: November 16 - 19

Where: Long Beach, California

What: Classes include "Preparation for and Documentation of Terrorist Activities and the Aftermath of Disasters and/or Weapons of Mass Destruction" and "Marine and Underwater Crime and Accident Scene Identification and Documentation."

How: Registration fee (before October 30th) for students cost $445.

Check out this website for more details.

"Week in Pictures"

I was just reading the June issue of News Photographer magazine, which is published by the NPPA, which stands for National Press Photographers Association, which is for photojournalists - still & video - newspaper & television, students & professionals ....

Anyway, members of the NPPA student chapter at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California have a web gallery called the "Week in Pictures."

This student chapter, which has more than 110 active members, took their web gallery even further and created "The Top Twenty Week in Pictures 2005" which also became a print exhibit and silent auction. The New York Times' deputy director of photography David Frank and assistant managing editor Michele McNally chose 20 of the best pictures from that 2005's "Week in Pictures" after Brooks faculty member Joe Gosen gave them a selection of 50 to chose from.

How cool is that! I'm inspired!

Minority PJ Scholarship

The deadline for the Guillermo & Herlinda Calzada Visual Journalism Scholarship is June 1st.

The $1000 scholarship is awarded periodically to deserving minority photojournalism students enrolled in universities with non-accredited programs.

To apply, send a short essay detailing your hopes for your career, samples of your work with a references sheet, and also the URL to your website if you have one. You can send it via email or on a CD/DVD via snail mail:

Billy Calzada
PO Box 90203
San Antonio, TX 78209

Good luck!

Becoming a Professor

This link is for those of you working on your MFA's and hoping to become both world-class artists and funky educators. It is an insightful view of the job hiring process in academia. And although it doesn't take place in an art department, the issues are relevant. Check it out ...

New Degree in Photography

The March issue of Rangefinder Magazine offers this ...

Sotheby's Institue of Art in London will expand its graduate program to include a master's degree in historic and contemporary photography. It is scheduled for September 2006.

The new degree is designed to give students the skills needed in appreciating and analyzing photography in terms of intention, production, encounter and interpretation.

Participating faculty will include artists Andreas Gursky, Cindy Sherman, Sophie Calle, Nan Goldin, Thomas Struth, and Jeff Wall.

Students Know Best

This is an interesting letter written to the Art Department at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and published in The Carolinian Online, a student newspaper on campus.

The reason I am posting it is because it brings up a dialog that is probably happening on some campuses and needs to start happening on others. Where is the place of the wet darkroom in contemporary curriculum? Is it important to you as a photography student? Are some universities focusing on just digital and not film -- or vice-versa?

"An open letter to the UNCG Art Department" by Matt Frankland, Senior, UNCG

In early January, Nikon announced they were dropping support for film, the latest in a long list of companies forced to evolve or go broke in a digital world. With one of the two largest players in the film world leaving, can our department finally do the same? The core curriculum for design students still requires we take wet darkroom photography to graduate in a sort of murky denial of reality. Can we stop hiding behind the premise that as a fine arts program its the right thing to do?

The university is opening a new building for us in a few months, with an even larger wet darkroom than we have now. I'm thankful for that, film will always have its place. But not in a required course.

As an adult student, I left the university to test the waters. I tried many hats, including several years as a photographer. During that time, I, nor any of the professionals I worked with, used film. Now as an employer, I know how important digital camera skills are to being successful in the workplace. Even if graduates will not be in the field taking pictures, they will be handling and developing RAW camera files (a digital equivalent to film).

Keep the same course number if you like, but Art 285 has to change. For the cost of the manual camera, lens, film, paper and other materials needed to complete this course currently, digital cameras are available that output the same RAW camera file format professional cameras do. Teach the same darkroom technique, but on computer files. This is critical for design students who want to be competitive in post college endeavors.

It's Good to Be in Arizona

The Western Photographic Historical Society is offering three $2000 scholarships to full-time undergraduate college juniors or seniors at a four-year college or university majoring in photography in Arizona.

Application deadline is April 15, 2006.

Here are the hoops that you need to jump through ...
1) Five unmounted images no smaller than 5x7 or larger than 8x10
2) Two letters of recommendation, signed and sealed and signed on the seal
3) A letter to the committee that states how photography has effected your life
4) Transcript of Grades

Questions: Call (520) 529-5072

Graduate Teaching Assistantships

Get your MFA in Photography!

The University of Notre Dame is offering graduate teaching assistantships, which covers tuition and gives you a stipend. They offer a three year graduate program in photography.

Faculty includes Richard Gray and Martina Lopez.

Deadline is March 1, 2006.

What could be better then getting paid to go to school, gain university-level teaching experience, and have the opportunity to focus on your own bodies of work.

Graduate Assistantships

It is never to soon to start thinking about graduate school. And a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is a must if you are even tinkering with the idea of teaching photography at the college/university level.

University of Nevada in Las Vegas offers an intense MFA interdisciplinary visual arts program. They are hiring graduate assistants with stipends for approximately $10,000, plus tuition waivers, plus potential teaching experience. Sounds too good to be true.

Deadline for application is February 1st.

For information and application write: Professor Catherine Angel, Coordinator of Photography; Art Department; University of Nevada Las Vegas; 4505 Maryland Parkway; Las Vegas, NV 89154-5002. You can also reach Professor Angel at 702 895 3113.