I was cleaning out a file drawer in my university office (retirement isn't too far away) and came across a folder of papers I'd typed (pre computer days) as a (ahem, very very young) doc student in 1978 -- one of which was called "The Study of Expertise, Experts, Expertness in Photography"! I had forgotten all about this -- it was in a course about learning and differences between experts and novices. I wasn't in the visual arts and probably should have studied readers or writers. But even back then I must have really wished I could be in photography. And I couldn't help but include my A-...
This predates the work done by the Cognitive Technical Group at Vandy by a few years, too! They studied and published about the difference(s) between novices and experts. I studied under one of the members that migrated slightly north for a few years, Hasselbring, before he headed back to Vandy.
Finding this just means you were destined to explore photography more! and more! and more! Lovely find and well presented.
Isn't it a wonderful moment when you come face to face with the self you'd forgotten in the past?! This seems an impressive study, and one that would be interesting to read! (Isn't it wonderful we no longer have to type dissertations on a typewriter?!)
@Weezilou Thanks Louise -- it was fun to find it. And it wasn't that good from the benefit of hindsight. But it wasn't bad for a first year doc student who'd not had any methods courses yet! It was funny reading papers I'd written in grad school and seeing how I was graded, compared to how I grade my students!
@voiceprintz Small world! I know the prof I had at U of MN for this course was really respected and known. And I remember feeling so out of my element! It'll be fun to compare notes!
Love it, love it Taffy, takes me way back down memory lane too. I can well remember pounding away on typewriters in the pre-computer days. What a hassle when one made a typo!
When I graduated from High School I went to a business school and took stenography (shorthand) and typing. I wasn't good at either and remember spending hours typing and retyping. Thank goodness for computers. I have a few papers around but since by the time I went to college I was into accounting I didn't keep those. More the other "stuff" you have to take.
Photography back then would have been so different, with all those manual cameras and no digital processing. I think there was so much more skill to it then. It nice to see you were interested way back then...
What a treasure to find and an early indication of where your interests lay,
I recently went through all my old university notes when I cleared my mother's house out. I have to say though they were largely unintelligible to me [as a lapsed physicist] I enjoyed reading the caustic comments of the laboratory supervisors who did not hold back with their comments:-)
Fortunately we were not required to type our findings out otherwise the comments may have been worse.
Look how far you have come! I too would love to read this. Great to see a flash back to your past. I am sure you have changed so much, but at the core you are still you!
@virtualbrownie Haha! I only read the comment on the cover -- not sure I wanted to know what anyone thought. I also was surprised to find the papers in the first place -- there were about 10 of them, from masters and doc program so very fun to see myself in the writing at that stage of life! What was funny is recognizing early kernels of today's writing style and appalling to see some of the writing tropes I used! Ah...youth!
@888rachel I had an SLR Canon back than, used almost entirely on automatic, I'm sure, with no idea about anything other than auto-focus, and no clue about light metering. BUT, this was the funniest thing -- I found some b&w prints from a developing course I took and they were of stairs! And others were mostly focusing on lines/shadows. So interesting to see that! I was terrible, but clearly trying to do some of the things I'm still interested in.
@ericdibosco See my note to Rachel above -- I would say I've always 'done' photography as I even had a Brownie camera as a kid. But I never knew what I was doing or did anything other than 'point and shoot' even with a better camera. I probably am not recalling accurately, but with the paper I found, I remember wanting to know more about what 'real' photographers do and I think it was sort of a case study of a professional and what they did -- but I can tell in my writing, I didn't really understand the way he was talking about ISO/Aperture/Shutter Speed/Lighting/Perspective. NOW all he says makes total sense! And more than anything, I think it interesting that in a course where I should have been interested in expertise in reading/writing (my own field), given a choice, I studied photographers instead! I've always said if I could do my life over, I would have been a photo-journalist. In the 60s, though, women didn't make those kinds of choices -- we were teachers or nurses (and I queasy at the sight of blood!)
How fascinating to find this. I went through all my stuff last year when I cleared my room prior to retirement. It's hard to throw these kinds of memories away and now I wish I hadn't got rid of so much. Interested that you were graded for work at grad level: for my PhD the thesis was the only thing that was ever marked - we didn't have to submit any interim papers at all, except a first-year report, which was just for discussion.
@dolphin Our systems are really different at the graduate level. In the US, we still do group coursework (in smaller groups of course than at the masters or undergrad). Our theses isn't graded -- just a pass (or not in some cases, I guess). But we have major exams after coursework that moves us to candidacy for doing the theses. I've decided to scan in some of these older papers, rather than keep them. Sort of an in-between choice as in the end, I doubt anyone will want them and they just take up space. The harder thing now is figuring out what books to keep and which to give away! Any thoughts?
I still feel that way about my Hebrew class from seminary. I loved learning it and really wanted to, but the prof's teaching style and my learning style did not mesh well and I still feel like I hardly learned a thing. I look back on that class and wonder how in the world I ended up with an A- in it! And that's just the tip of the iceberg!! LOL It really is fun to discover papers and such from "the early days" and to see how we've grown. Thanks for sharing a little snippet of your journey with us. (And by the way, it doesn't surprise me you did so well!)
@taffy Thanks for the insight. Well, you certainly have grown A LOT in photography...and in the end it is great to to have a job and a totally different hobby, especially a hobby which you are so passionate about. Anyway, I am real glad that I happened to stumble upon your album a year or so ago, I think it was through your association with Mara that I did. Do you still have any contact with her?
Finding this just means you were destined to explore photography more! and more! and more! Lovely find and well presented.
I recently went through all my old university notes when I cleared my mother's house out. I have to say though they were largely unintelligible to me [as a lapsed physicist] I enjoyed reading the caustic comments of the laboratory supervisors who did not hold back with their comments:-)
Fortunately we were not required to type our findings out otherwise the comments may have been worse.