I had an amazing photojournalism professor in my senior year at USC, someone who made me wish that I’d had his class in my first year so that I could switch my major to journalism and be a shutterbug instead of a writer. Something I still think about.
It was a hard class for me, because photography is a very technical thing, and I was an English major, which is all theoretical, even in the tangible product - papers full of ideas that I would write the night before they were due, for the most part.
But photojournalism is something you can’t half-ass, and it’s about luck as much as it is about patience, and so much of it is about looking at your work in a measured and impartial way after the shooting is done. It’s really honorable and really difficult. I spent a lot of my semester in his class biting my nails from the back of my boyfriend’s motorcycle, hoping this sort of high-concept (and slightly dangerous, in hindsight) project I was working on would gel. And my professor made me feel like I was awesome for trying. And he helped me figure out how to make it work.
I have a lot of respect for him, and he saw me at my most high-strung and anxious, because I really wanted to do well in his class. He also was one of very few profs that actually cares about you as a person, and he checks in with his former students all the time, as they do with him. Last night was his retirement party, which made me sad for all the kids that will never get to learn from him. It was a relief to talk to other people there and realize I am not the only person who would email him every few months after graduation, freaking out because I didn’t know what I was doing with my life. And he always replied with long, analytical, thoughtful emails and useful contacts that helped me dig myself out of my self-pity so I could spring into action and adjust my life. He has always reassured me that I can do more than I think I can do, and that I just need to chill out and work and create a good network for myself, and I’ll end up where my life needs to go.
And also - and this is the best thing about this man, the part that makes me so inspired and happy - he is proof that one person can change the life of many people for the better, by caring about and working with them one at a time.
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