Yale 2017 MFAs - Oh, the ennui

ParkerSmithPhoto · Aug 18, 2017

Lensculture has a roundup of this year's Yale MFA class. Oh, the ennui that must come from growing up with everything provided for you, every little need satisfied, then being sent off to become a MASTER of Fine Arts at one of America's most prestigious and exclusive universities.

Bear in mind, this is YALE, home of Walker Evans, Tod Papageorge, Abelardo Morrell, Mark Steinmetz and so many other great photographers. Tod Papageorge used to say something to his students to the effect of “your work looks like it was made by someone who has never read a book.”

Ditto.

I mean, just look at the photograph of a tire track through the melting snow. Doesn't that just make your spirit vibrate? Or the "dead behind the eyes" portrait of the girl in the basement, that looks just like every other "dead behind the eyes" portrait photographer on Instagram. So deep, so profound. Not.

It just gets worse and worse. Obviously Papageorge's retirement has left a gaping hole in a once proud institution.

tedr1 · Aug 18, 2017

This reminds me of the thread you started in response to the publication of some student portfolios a while back. You trashed that one too. Have you considered starting threads about work that you consider to have value, and when finding work that you consider inferior simply ignoring it and resist the temptation to post?

ParkerSmithPhoto · Aug 19, 2017

tedr1 said:
This reminds me of the thread you started in response to the publication of some student portfolios a while back. You trashed that one too. Have you considered starting threads about work that you consider to have value, and when finding work that you consider inferior simply ignoring it and resist the temptation to post?

Nah! That's a terrible idea.

You obviously missed that I've started conversations about Karsh, Penn, Weston, print stamps, safelight restoration, given away lots of free stuff, made tons of great deals in the classifieds, etc. Maybe you could check in with our fellow APUGer that got my two free 35mm film camera with lenses, plus a bulk loader, cassettes and a bunch of free HP5. He likes me okay.

The fact is I DON'T post about every depressing, boring ass academic "conceptual" photographer on the planet. There's not enough minutes in a lifetime to do that. The point is, this is Yale. The supposed cream of the crop, Masters of Fine Art, for gods sake, and it's for the most part indistinguishable from fart pictures on Instagram. I'd say that Instagram is a bigger influence on these photographers than Walker Evans, Steinmetz, Papageorge, Zeke Berman, Abe Morrell, or any of the other truly fine photographers who came from that once proud program. That is sad.

What's even sadder is that I KNOW a couple of Yale grads, and the "art world" has not been kind to them, despite their combined contributions to the kitty in excess of $200,000. They aren't even skilled enough to go out and photograph a CEO for a few hundred bucks with a couple of strobes and a DSLR.

But they can make fancy conceptual pictures that the world doesn't give two shakes of a wombat weiner about. On 8x10 color neg!

faberryman · Aug 19, 2017

Seeing the work of these MFA graduates gives lowly me a big boost of confidence. There were a couple of nice photographs, but most of it was rather ho-hum. Perhaps you would have to see their whole portfolios rather than selected images to appreciate the work.

btaylor · Aug 19, 2017

I thought they were all interesting photographs, and would probably be more so with more context-- portfolio or series as faberryman suggests would help.

The other thing is this is student work. They have not yet been launched into the world. Give them a break! the number of them that will be gallery showing artists in 10 years is tiny, that's how that works. But whatever, none of this means anything. Almost no one actually cares about fine art anyway.

eddie · Aug 19, 2017

Those photographers are all probably in their early-mid twenties, just starting out on their artistic journeys. I'd ask those being critical of their work, "what did your work look like at that age?"

ParkerSmithPhoto · Aug 19, 2017

faberryman said:
Seeing the work of these MFA graduates gives lowly me a big boost of confidence. There were a couple of nice photographs, but most of it was rather ho-hum. Perhaps you would have to see their whole portfolios rather than selected images to appreciate the work.

One of the best things about photography is that anyone can take it and apply it to their passion and start making great pictures. I saw this entomologist who learned photography and made the most astonishing pictures of insects. Just incredible work, it was like a window into another world. Like anything, you have to keep working at it. The best feeling you can have as a photographer is that you've outdone yourself, that your picture is exceeds your perception of your abilities.

ParkerSmithPhoto · Aug 19, 2017

btaylor said:
Almost no one actually cares about fine art anyway.

It's pretty much "Inside Baseball" isn't it? Many people will watch a baseball game but very, very few want to get down into the numbers and details.

I doubt many of us will have our work survive. Ultimately it takes the focus and dedication of several human lives to preserve the work of even one minor artist. For someone like Rembrandt, you can only imagine the tens of thousands of individual decision points that have gone into the study and preservation of his work. I'm afraid that so much photography being produced now is of such low caliber and is so utterly diffuse in it's choice of mundane subject matter that people will just look at it and say "why bother?"

I don't think even an uneducated, non-art world person would ever look at Irving Penn's work and dismiss it that way. Because it is objectively beautiful.

guangong · Aug 19, 2017

I suspect that at Yale along with many other institutions of "higher learning" has a faculty made up of the same kinds of individuals that offer an MFA. The generation of art teachers for drawing, painting, sculpture and, yes, photography, that had comprehensive knowledge and skills to guide students is long gone. Nowadays teachers are mostly limited to teaching their own gimmicks and personal methods because that is all they know. It is not having a piece of paper that certifies an artist. I am truly impressed by the work and knowledge of many who participate in the APUG forums and I doubt if very many have an MFA from anywhere but they have a passion for photography.

faberryman · Aug 19, 2017

eddie said:
Those photographers are all probably in their early-mid twenties, just starting out on their artistic journeys. I'd ask those being critical of their work, "what did your work look like at that age?"

I was self-taught (and still am), so I would certainly expect someone with an MFA from Yale to be be miles ahead of me. They probably all have BFAs already. They are the cream of the crop in the country. Only nine are admitted each year out of who knows how many thousands of applications. Is your explanation for the quality of the images that they have only had six years of formal instruction?

Peter Schrager · Aug 19, 2017

Ansel had it right and I'll say it again
The first 10000 negatives are just practice
I didn't find the pictures all that bad and in this day and age when we are totally swamped with images let's give them a break...
A true photographer is not made in a day week or even in graduate school

Theo Sulphate · Aug 19, 2017

eddie said:
Those photographers are all probably in their early-mid twenties, just starting out on their artistic journeys. I'd ask those being critical of their work, "what did your work look like at that age?"

I tried to emulate Andreas Feininger, whose photos I love. I made a lot of snapshots, too, but I knew they weren't worthy of any display beyond the shoebox in my closet.

I encourage the students to keep improving if photography is their passion.

Patrick Robert James · Aug 19, 2017

Even though photography is so simple, especially with modern technology, it really isn't that easy. Some people have the ability to make good images and some don't. You can't teach it. That is why if you look through the history of photography very few famous photographers ever went to a University. No point to it really as far as photography goes. The point to going to a school like Yale is so you can join the Club. These days that is all that seems to matter.

tim_walls · Aug 19, 2017

ParkerSmithPhoto said:
Lensculture has a roundup of this year's Yale MFA class. Oh, the ennui that must come from growing up with everything provided for you, every little need satisfied, then being sent off to become a MASTER of Fine Arts at one of America's most prestigious and exclusive universities.

Bear in mind, this is YALE, home of Walker Evans, Tod Papageorge, Abelardo Morrell, Mark Steinmetz and so many other great photographers. Tod Papageorge used to say something to his students to the effect of “your work looks like it was made by someone who has never read a book.”

Ditto.

I mean, just look at the photograph of a tire track through the melting snow. Doesn't that just make your spirit vibrate? Or the "dead behind the eyes" portrait of the girl in the basement, that looks just like every other "dead behind the eyes" portrait photographer on Instagram. So deep, so profound. Not.

It just gets worse and worse. Obviously Papageorge's retirement has left a gaping hole in a once proud institution.

I don't even need to look at the link to know this is bunkum.

You judge students just starting out on their journey against great artists, and despair that they don't come up to snuff, even though they barely had time to learn their craft. And at the same time you have some deluded belief that art is something you can be taught, and that somehow a photographer from Yale (I'm guessing it's in the US?) should naturally have more talent than someone from L'viv Technical College.

In both these assumptions, you reveal yourself to be an idiot.

eddie · Aug 19, 2017

faberryman said:
I was self-taught (and still am), so I would certainly expect someone with an MFA from Yale to be be miles ahead of me.

Really? You've been at it for 40 years while they're just beginning. A fairer comparison would be to compare what they're doing to what you did at the same age. I'm sure if we could look at the early attempts by any artist, even those that became world renowned, we'd have a hard time foreseeing how they'd evolve.

faberryman · Aug 19, 2017

eddie said:
Really? You've been at it for 40 years while they're just beginning. A fairer comparison would be to compare what they're doing to what you did at the same age. I'm sure if we could look at the early attempts by any artist, even those that became world renowned, we'd have a hard time foreseeing how they'd evolve.

I was speaking to my work at their age.

eddie · Aug 19, 2017

faberryman said:
I was speaking to my work at their age.

Has your work evolved over time? Is your work better, more cohesive now? Can you identify artistic growth? Would you hang your early work next to your recent work?( Purely generic questions, as I do like your work).

faberryman · Aug 19, 2017

eddie said:
Has your work evolved over time? Is your work better, more cohesive now? Can you identify artistic growth? Would you hang your early work next to your recent work?( Purely generic questions, as I do like your work).

There is some of my early work I would hang; unfortunately, I lost my early negatives and prints in one of my many moves, so I just have memories of it. I still have thousands of slides, and one of my current projects is to scan and print some of my better color work. Now that I am retired and working on photography full time, I have made good progress, largely focusing on alternative processes like lith, platinum/palladium, and recently carbon, and an emphasis on developing portfolios instead of taking happy accident photographs. What I have posted on my website is my self directed work for the past two years.

Peter Schrager · Aug 19, 2017

I started out as a youngster with s 5x7 camera
I had one lens..some crappy film holders and a lot of gumption. However I did spend s fair amount time cutting school and going into new York to see the masters of photography
Loading film;making exposures ;developing film and making prints is all second nature...Now!
It's been over 40 years but I'll swear I only work with the light...or rather drawn to that particular scene...its really the ZEN OF ANYTHING
YOU MUST PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
THEN MAYBE JUST MAYBE YOU ENTER INTO THE HALL OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Theo Sulphate · Aug 19, 2017

In my early twenties, the single most important thing that improved my photography was printing my photos. After spending the time developing the negatives, choosing the frames, spending six hours from midnight to 6am in a dim hallway with my prints, and having only one or two worth looking at - that made me pay attention to what I photographed and how I did it.

Rick A · Aug 19, 2017

The way I see it, those youngsters parents paid a huge sum of money so their kid could be technically proficient at making a photograph. They did not learn how to make a great photograph. They possess the knowledge to go out and hone their skills, and sharpen their eye(hopefully).Chances are, most(if not all) will walk around with an inflated ego, and still live in mommy n daddy's basement because they can't figure out how to make that education work for them. They will be the disillusioned who think they should be making hundreds of thousands of dollars, just because. Well, that or they will suck it up and become elementary school art teachers and dream of what might have been.

pbromaghin · Aug 19, 2017

faberryman said:
. What I have posted on my website is my self directed work for the past two years.

That stuff is all light-years ahead of those Yale grads.

guangong · Aug 20, 2017

Adding to what I and others wrote above, I should add that practically every really good artist that I have known personally is also well educated and well read on science, music and literature. Many did go to very fine academic schools such as Princeton, Columbia, NYU but did not major in art. A great deal of knowledge and life experience goes into a good piece of art. When only techno ally proficient at best a picture will look like a Hasselblad ad.

removed account4 · Aug 20, 2017

great student work. thanks for posting this.
it's at least as good as a lot of work that is
posted on the internet by "well knows" or
photographers making a name for themselves
( and those who post in online galleries )
their "style" isn't for everyone, but it's still evolving.
i'm sure if the prints were 20footx30foot they would
be even better than the "well knowns" who sell
photographs for 1-2 million. all they need is representation.

GregW · Aug 20, 2017

I really find the premise of this 'critique' to be really tiresome. It literally makes me tired to read this sort of dross. How the hell would you know whether these kids were spoiled and pampered? Just b/c they're at Yale? Kids just now venturing out into the world from academia and there you are yelling at them to get off your lawn.

Yale 2017 MFAs - Oh, the ennui

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