student work / workshops

one of the primary things  i want to do with this web/blog/magazine is to publish as much of my students work as I can…..both my “official” students as well as the work of photographers who just come knocking on my door…in a few days you will see some work from jake pritchard who was one of the eight students who spent 9 days with me last fall in new york for my first workshop at home…(http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0610/rosenfield.html) jake struggled as most students do….jake was already an accomplished serious photographer, but he wanted to grow……hear his story and see his work….

my mother is a teacher....my mom is now a healthy 86-year-old and is
said to be the source of "kryptonite" from which i feed....in any case,
my mother wanted me to be a preacher or a teacher......so some of what
she wanted i feel compelled to satisfy.......

i started teaching when i was still a student.....in grad school at the
university of missouri i started having to "explain" and "justify" my
work in a way which i had not had to do as a quasi "art student".....this new
crowd wanted me to make pictures that "meant" something.....rebel,
rebel i was....hey, this was the sixties and you either covered the
vietnam war or stayed at home and worked with the civil rights
movement...i mean, if you considered yourself a humanitarian documentary
photographer that is what you did....but how was i going to
"arrive"....how could i live out my dream....i had to play on this
team...not wanted to, but had to....

in any case, i learned so much as a student when i was 21 at the
missouri workshop and i was so so impressed by the amount of  time these
"big time" photographers and editors would spend with me, looking at my
work....howard chapnick from black star agency, bill garrett from
national geographic and bill eppridge from life magazine hung out with
me, talked to me like a real person (unlike some university professors
of our era) and viewed and critiqued my work....this changed my life...

because of this it is payback time in my mind....i figure i owe a solid
percentage of my time devoted to emerging photographers.....pass the
baton if possible....the student/teacher relationship at it’s best is
symbiotic....... this is where i try to take it.....henri cartier-bresson
once said that you" cannot teach anything worth knowing"......i think
this is probably true....real genius has no teacher....but, perhaps a
little "kick in the butt" or listening to the "why" of where my
students want to go.....i can teach nothing as henri suggested....but,
i can stimulate and be stimulated.....and this is the key to my art.....