THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EYE

STUDENT ROLE
CRITIQUING
24
Students are required to shoot one roll of 36 exposures — entirely devoted
to the assignment — per week. A general rule for assignments is: the more
specific, the better. Most students will want very clear guidelines, at least at
first. The more creative students won't need that — they'll be creative anyway.
The primary goal of the assignments is to focus students' attention on
subjects they might otherwise overlook. This trains their photographic vision
and gets the process of "learning to see with a camera" going much more
quickly than with a more laissezfaire approach. In addition, having students
work on the same assignment at the same time makes critique, or "crit," sessions
easier and more beneficial. It's very important, therefore, that students
do shoot what is assigned. (You might point out that if an assignment were
from a client, they'd have to get the right shot or lose the job.)
Once the next assignment has been clearly presented, the students turn in
their finished prints from the previous assignment. All prints are required to
conform to a standard format. First and foremost, they must be a full 8" x
10" (20.3 cmx 25.4cm), no elongated shapes, which imposes a healthy compositional
discipline. They must be mounted on some appropriate cardboard
stock, so they won't curl or fall over during crits, and trimmed flush with the
edges of the print (no borders). You may settle on a different standard, such
as white, 1-inch (2.5 cm) borders on all sides, but it is important that a clear
standard be established. This is both good training and an important means
of equalizing factors that might influence judging (such as the presence or
absence of borders).
The prints are arranged — anonymously — at random along the wall, in full
view of the entire class. Students are then called on to discuss value, focus,
presentation and other technical issues (one photo for each student).
Once each has been discussed, students take turns arranging the photographs
from most successful to least successful, as follows:
• The first student called on selects what he or she considers the most successful
print and places it at the head of the line.
• The second student selects the second-most successful print and places
it next in line. Each student may overrule any previous selection as well.
• This continues until all the prints have been ranked.