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Student demand leads to new photography classes

By Katie Lund
Greenlee Web Team

The Greenlee School will offer two new photography classes this spring semester, and there’s still time to enroll or get on a waiting list.

Classes

Jl MC 311x Persuasive Photography is geared toward public relations and advertising majors. The class focuses on understanding and using digital photography and lab techniques for persuasion in public relations and advertising applications. Lecturer Diane Bugeja will teach the class.

Jl MC 312x Advanced Photojournalism covers advanced techniques and problem solving for photographers. The class will focus on photographic storytelling, documentaries, determining visual potential and making ethical decisions in news coverage. Assistant Professor Dennis Chamberlin will teach the class.

Jl MC 310 Fundamentals of Photojournalism has been the only photography class for a few years. In photojournalism the focus is on the captions, and the class assignments are similar to what you would receive from a newspaper, Chamberlin said.

“The approach is different for Jl MC 310 and 311x,” Bugeja said. “The camera and the software used are similar, which is why students can not receive credit for both classes.”

She said photojournalists have a broad audience while public relations and advertising people have a target audience in mind.

Student interest

For next semester both Jl MC 310 and 311x are filled but students can continue to sign up to be put on a waiting list, said Deb Nugent, a record analyst in the Greenlee Advising Office.

Jl MC 312x has six spots open. Students wanting to take the class need only to show their portfolios and get permission from the instructor. There are 18 computers in the lab, so there are 18 spots in the class.

Priority will be given to students who have declared visual communication as their emphasis area, then upper-class journalism and advertising majors, then first-year students and non-majors

Chamberlin said he wants students interested in photography to be able to take the classes before their senior year.

“I want a variety of people in the classes,” he said. “Students from design and outside the Greenlee School have a different perspective.”

Equipment

Both Jl MC 310 and 311x are digital photography classes. The materials needed are:

• Camera with a manual setting and three or more mega pixels
• Memory card (125mb or higher is recommended)
• Camera manual
• Desire to learn and experiment

Bugeja said the camera manual is very important because digital cameras are like mini- computers and you need to understand how to use them.

A digital or film camera can be used for Jl MC 312x. The class will work with digital files so students who use film will be able to use the new scanners.

Chamberlin said it will be a great class but will take time and effort. He wants people to make the best photos they can.

Both Bugeja and Chamberlin said student interest is the key to the continuation of these classes.

“I think there is an interest because we’re in a visual world,” Chamberlin said. “People will gravitate to the classes by word of mouth.”

He said photography is a deceptively simple medium. People either have talent or work hard. The best photographers do both. Some of the best don’t have an eye but work hard, Chamberlin said.

“What matters is taking the rest of your education and translating it into photos.” - Dennis Chamberlin, assistant professor

Bugeja recommends either Jl MC 310 or 311x as an elective for everyone. She said she has had students on internships freak out when given a camera and an assignment. It is important to be able to evaluate and use photos even if you do not know how to take them, she said.

“Visual literacy is really important. Photography is everywhere,” she said. “It is important to know how to use and interpret it.”

Bugeja said photography is like learning another language; you get out what you put in.

“The skills will stay with you for the rest of your life,” she said. “Take-away value is attractive to students.”

There is a possibility of another photography class a few years down the road, Chamberlin said. For now, Bugeja and Chamberlin are focusing on spring semester.

The plan for now is to offer Jl MC 310 during the fall and spring semesters and offer Jl MC 311x and 312x once a year.

“Students don’t have time for more than three or four classes,” he said. “What matters is taking the rest of your education and translating it into photos.”

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Last updated: Nov. 3, 2005
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