Defending the Darkroom in Education

[gevalia]

By way of introduction, I teach high school photography at a rural public high school in Arizona...

Our principal told me today that the darkroom will be shut down immediately, and only digital photography will be taught. (I was also told in writing that teaching analog photography had "no industrial value" and that teaching it was "unacceptable and lacked professionalism".)

My students are quite upset about it; several were in tears over it. (Hey, what's high school without a little drama?) I have several who are planning on attending college photo programs, and the four closest colleges that have photo programs have analog as a major part of the program. I asked whether I wasn't supposed to prepare students for college, and was told no, I was to prepare them for a trade right out of school.

(BTW, I teach about 80% digital, 20% analog/hybrid.)

I'm trying to come up with some "vocational/trade" reasons to keep the darkroom around as a small part of the program. Any ideas or resources?

I say find a few well-known film photographers to come into the school an do presentations to the whole school body. Have the local media come in and get the events on the news. And then approach the principal again on the subject after that media coverage is fresh in his mind. I'm sure there are a few on this board that would love helping on this. Just out-flank the guy. He may even end up taking credit for everything.

[Mark Sawyer]

Thanks, all, for the support. Wish I had more time to respond, but I'm at school... A few quick clarifications:

Our new principal is a she, not a he.

I'm getting some good ideas and feedback from you, so thank you!

[goamules]

Just read this Mark, this really is a Mr. Holland's Opus story isn't it? Years of your success, getting your student's soft focus work published in national magazines, etc...all mean nothing to this new "administrator?" Your students have won competitions for film/wetplate. They are learning about an important niche market.

I would write a white paper, very respectfully outlining the benefits of your analog curriculum. I would ask her to read and digest it, and then get back to you. I would also include several other higher ups in the email. You can send it to the District Super for example. That way, there has to be a dialog, and she can't just round file it.

Benefits of anolog curriculum:

- Allow real world experience with chemistry and industrial processes
- Prepare students for manufacturing, or other process-based careers
- Prepare students for a career in fine arts
- Teach students the critical skills of invention and creativity
- Allow using or making custom lenses - rather than just buying what the industrial digital industry provides)
- Foster a flexible mindset and problem solving
- Increase troubleshooting skills
- etc., etc.....

These can be sync'd up with standard AZ benchmark/testing type of objectives, I'd bet. The point is, your students will be more well rounded, technically capable, and engaged with life, than the standard curriculum. At no more cost.

Does she also want to kill all the clubs, sports, chorus? Do other classes have components that are not "on the list" for the test, test, overtest requirements? Does a science class that focuses on model rocketry really have "industrial value"? Or does it create those intangibles I talk about above? Innovation, broad systems understanding, technical practice, chemistry, optics, etc....

Good luck,

[Kimberly Anderson]

As someone who printed in a darkroom for many years and has now been printing digitally for many years, I can tell you that I look at my old darkroom prints and almost always see ways by which I could improve them by printing digitally using materials and techniques that weren't available or weren't feasible in a darkroom. Anyone who views the purpose of printing digitally as nothing more than duplicating what could be done in a darkroom is taking a very narrow and very limiting view of what can be done by printing digitally.

My point is that since you have years of experience in the darkroom, you have a baseline of what a good print looks like that you can then use as a measure to judge your digital prints against.

If someone comes straight into digital printing there is no baseline.

[cyrus]

Tell him you can't really understand digital photography without a basic understanding in analog photography. And tell him that the term "photography" consists of a variety of processes, some of them of great social and historical significance, Tell him that nothing digital has really completely supplanted analog - that's why he still has real, actual books in the library instead of just internet-connected computers.

[Richard M. Coda]

Mark. I did exactly what Ron Miller suggested a couple of years ago at my daughter's school. I was invited to hang an exhibition for a month and give a walking tour one day and come back to give a class room talk to the advanced photo students.

http://rcodaphotography.blogspot.com...ibition-2.html

I'd be happy to come down to Tucson to bring some work and talk! Make sure you invite your principal!

You may also want to contact Becky Senf, the acting Senior Curator at CCP at UA. http://www.infocus-phxart.org/emails...nf_071411.html She is also our Norton Family Curator at the PHX Art Museum and on the Board of InFocus, as am I.

[KEK]

If your school districts finances are anything like mine I'd say your new principle is doing a nice job of moving out the higher priced teachers. I'll bet any new hire is a wet behind the ears recent graduate and your school will suffer from the lack of experience.

[Drew Wiley]

Yeah sound like a hatchet job. Watch your back. But in terms of the relevance of a
vocational background in traditional darkroom, it works something like this in the real
world, at least around here. People who can shoot digital and do digital comp are dime
a dozen. Yeah you need to know this stuff. But any graduate is not going to stand out
in the crowd and will most likely have a long uphill battle. Someone who displays a range of skills and versatility, however, is going to get to the head of the pack a lot quicker. Sure worked that way with some young folk I know. Learn both.

[Michael E]

Our principal told me today that the darkroom will be shut down immediately, and only digital photography will be taught. (I was also told in writing that teaching analog photography had "no industrial value" and that teaching it was "unacceptable and lacked professionalism".)

Obviously, she has issues with authority. She is new and has to prove she is in charge. Cancelling a program without talking to the involved teachers is just bad style. Using questionable arguments doesn't make it any better. Maybe you can sit down and talk about it. Tell her in person why you consider it necessary to teach some analog photography and darkroom skills.

I always thought high school was supposed to give kids access to skills or knowledge they wouldn't gain otherwise. Gaining broad knowledge gives the students a better foundation for the major decisions they are going to face. The things that helped me most in later life are not the ones considered "of industrial value" in school.

A short introduction into analog photography has a lot of benefits for the students at basically no cost for the school. Except for that, I think we all agree on the tremendous benefits that digital photography has for teaching kids. Why does it alsways have to be one or the other?

Michael

[MDR]

Just had a nice chat with a friend of mine who works as an architecture photographers and still uses classic LF film. She told me that she would never employ an assistant without darkroom knowledge or at least interest in darkroom work and she is not the only one. Darkroom work is still required in a few specialist photographic field and it's easier to get a job in a niche than a job everybody can do.

Maybe you can tell her that the governement still uses microfilm for long term archival storage of important documents even digital ones (at least in Germany and Austria) and without skilled darkroom workers and film restorers her pension and social security informations might be in jeopardy or disappear in the future just like the darkroom classes