Those Frequent Filers

Online forums overflow with fishermen telling stories of their exploits — fish growing longer with every beer. And that wouldn’t be bad, except — the outlandish liar isn’t an outlier in the film forums — those places your students are apt to find since google works the way it does — follows the well worn path — the cliche.

a caution about that shared insecurity blanket:

” Unsuccessful narcissists often spend their entire lives feeling bitter and disappointed about a world that they believe has failed to recognize their ‘specialness’, their beauty or genius. “

Dead End

the end of the trade…
would you teach music students without them ever hearing music?
would you teach chefs by having them study recipes; read knife catalogs; discuss sales brochures from 1912; convert units of measurment — but never taste food?
why teach art that way — don’t let them learn on the edge of the dead road of the Photography Forums. What they will learn is trivial — and you will have to work harder to get them into an open learning mind.

If you need to teach view camera, or film processing, then teach it. Do not refer your creative minded photography students to the online forums. Bad habits are never broken, but bad habits do break the visual mind