ROUNDTABLE 9

Title
Photographic education?

Audience:
Anyone in the general public who wishes to reflect on how education in photography should be handled nowadays.

Topic:
Technological changes and new trends in art generate a need to educate the new generations of photographers in a different way.

We need to ponder on what a photographer is and does nowadays. If we can define contemporary photographers and their new social functions, it would be possible to think about how they should be educated.

Nowadays, in the field of photojournalism, ordinary people who submit images without receiving payment are replacing professional photographers. In advertising, designers who try to do both jobs for the price of one have replaced the photographer. In the field of the arts, anyone can take a photo when they need one. Contemporary artists are multidisciplinary. Apart from social events such as weddings, sweet sixteen parties and bar mitzvahs, there is no need for a photographer as such anymore.

Nevertheless, photos are visible everywhere. Their discursive levels remain unclear. There are plenty of images that lack a well-defined purpose, which produces visual contamination. This situation raises two questions: Shouldn’t everyone receive a photographic education since everyone produces images? Shouldn’t aspiring photographers also study other media such as video, interactive installations, audio, and writing? This roundtable’s goal is to discuss teaching people how to read and produce images as part of a basic education program, and on the other hand, to analyze the educational needs of photography as a profession.

Duration:
Two hours.

Profile or Panel Members:
Photographer.
Historian.
Photography teacher.
Director of basic and professional educational programs.

Note: The panel may consist of all of the above members or just some of them.

Materials:
Computer and video projector, if necessary.