I wasn’t really looking forward to this past Friday. It was my last class of my first semester of teaching at Delaware Valley University’s Center for Living in Retirement (CLR). As previously mentioned, they foolishly asked me if I would like to teach a photography class based on an early entry I posted here called Living a Photographic Life. 

I had never taught in a formal class setting before so I was a little nervous. A nice amount of students had signed up, but what if no one returned after attending the first class?  Well I was pleasantly surprised that they kept on coming!

The challenge was to teach a course to a diverse range of retired students that had no interests in film photography, let along darkroom work. Most used cell phones or point and shoot cameras with little experience outside of taking family or vacation snapshots. A couple had more sophisticated DSLRs. All were color shooters.

I had a two-track approach and dual objective. Show them the many ways they could “keep there heads in the game” when there was no time to make photographs, and get them to produce a ten photograph portfolio with an accompanied written essay that they would present to the class. Throughout the semester they had a variety of assignments, such as loaning out monographs from the library and making photographs for discussion and constructive critique. We also had a few field trips, including one to my home for a darkroom printing demonstration (sorry, but I couldn’t help myself!). I tried to open their minds to new ways to thinking about the unlimited range of opportunities available to them. In the end they learned about a wide range of interesting and educational activities that would keep them interested in photography and they created a meaningful body of printed work to hold in their hands and be proud of displaying.

So how did it turn out? Great! They worked hard and put a lot of thought into their portfolios. It didn’t matter that they were printed at Costco. And their essays helped them to crystalize their ideas and focus on what their efforts meant to them. Most had rarely printed their work. And one had never printed his personal photographs before, but proudly displayed his work to the class. A few put together hand made books containing their photographs. Several included black and white photos and one produced a very fine portfolio composed entirely of black and white prints!!!

For me it was incredibly gratifying to see their interest in photography grow, their fears subside and their skills improve over twelve weeks.

Yet when all was said and done I realized I received so much more than I gave.