Teaching Photography

I am mostly a self-taught photographer with help from my father, teaching me things about aperture and shutter speed (and most recently flash, landscape photography, and how not to lean on a tripod when taking night pictures). I've only had two official courses in photography which were last semester...one digital (documentary photography) and one darkroom (photo 1). I got good grades in both, and spent a large majority of my time either shooting, digitally editing, or darkrooming it up. my hands had a permanent smell of darkroom on them.

teaching art is difficult. no one can say something is good or bad, but more "well composed," or, "the technical aspects of this work are really sound." things like that. With other subjects, like math, something is right or wrong (or sometimes, partially right) but with photography or art things get very very difficult. can't insult the student's work, gotta build the confidence, but also have to show them how to use their tools, give them space to experiment (most good things come by accident), but also give them spaces to jump off of. I have been in a few art classes (currently in 2!) and all teachers have a different approach.

For the study abroad program I'm in, all the students have to be involved in both community service and local clubs, to help us become integrated in the community, as well as help our colloquial french continue to improve (nothing like a bit of practice, eh?). My club is going to be tribal style belly dance lessons (beginning tonight!) and my community service...well...that's the story of this entry.

A few weeks ago, we were all given a list of potential community service listings, and a few positions landed at a local catholic high school, sacred heart (lycee sacre coeur). The positions were helping in some after school clubs there, among which were theater, dance, and photo. I jumped at the opportunity to help in a photo club, and i was placed there. The first class was supposed to be next week, but the woman in charge of the clubs (and also, the teacher of the dance class) wanted to meet with me so that she could talk to me about what to expect, change the night of the club, and show me around. So she showed up at AUCP yesterday to give me the tour.

while we were talking, she kept asking me about my experience in the field, and what things were neccessary in order to run an adequate darkroom. I was a little confused about why she wasn't asking these questions to the teacher, and instead to me, so I thought maybe I was missing something in translation.

"euh, je suis desolee, mais j'ai un question." (um, i'm sorry, i have a question)
"je t'ecoute." (I'm listining :-) )
"Est-ce que je suis le prof? ou est-ce que je suis un assistant, ou quoi?" (Am I the teacher? or am i an assistant, or what?)
"Oh, tu est le prof pour ce club. Est-ce que ca ce bien?" (Oh, you're the teacher, is that okay?)
"Oh, oui, bien sur!" (oh, yes, of course!) ::inner panic hidden::

so...now i'm teaching photography to a few high schoolers for about 2 hours every tuesday before my belly dancing class. WHOA. I'm really excited, but also incredably nervous. My french isn't that good, and with photography vocabulary...it's all a little overwhelming at this point. After I found this out and the meeting was over, i raced back to AUCP (my school) to shoot off a few panicked emails to fellow photography students asking for advice, and called dad. he didn't seem to sense the panic.

I see that this is a golden opportunity, and I intend to make the best of it that I can. I'm going to prograssively take them through things, making results for a show at the end of the year. while balancing classwork, clubs, and vacation planning. oh lord.

other things are pretty good. Marie Claire has got a cold, which doesn't bode well for me, but i've been giving her zinc and assorted oils, which she says helps a lot. Classwork is getting better, and yom kippur starts tomorrow evening (i got an excused absence for thursday. HAH.)

hope everyone had a lovely week of repentance, and I wish all an easy fast. Bonne Chance! A bientot! ( good luck! see you soon!)

ps: i saw a dior ad. looked really similar to my photo. see shots below.