‘Tough Love’ Photography

I recently came across some of my old school exercise books in the loft of my house. One in particular caught my eye as it was from when I was fourteen years of age and studying Macbeth. My fourteen year old daughter is currently studying the same play and I thought she might find them interesting. She didn’t, however, I noticed that in one of the books my English teacher, Mr Harrison, wrote this, “There is an alarming gap between the quality of this work and even the barest ‘O’ level standard.”

Today having written five published books, edited two magazines and been awarded a PHD for my writing, it is easy to look back on such a comment with a sense of wry humour. However, at the time it must have hurt. It must have made me feel that I was incapable of achieving even the most basic of grade in such an important qualification. His comments continued through the exercise book in the same vein, despite my grades improving. Even a ‘B’ only achieved a “reasonable effort.” Another essay received a “somewhat superficial in parts.” Despite this I did achieve a high grade in the final exam, and in my subsequent ‘A’ Level in English.

Watching the film, Who Is Marvin Israel ? (www.neilselkirk.com/films/marvin-israel) a number of Israel’s students talk of his abrasive syle of teaching. The film is perfectly named as I now find myself having to explain who Marvin Israel was, just in case you are not aware of the man or his work. Marvin Israel was born in Syracuse, New York, and was a graduate student at Syracuse University and spent two years in Paris studying and painting. The start of his photographic period was in 1953, when he studied design with the legandary art director, Alexey Brodovitch. In 1955 he received his Masters of Fine Arts in graphic design from Yale and became the art director for Seventeen magazine. In 1956 he photographed a young Elvis Presley and James Dean for the magazine. However, in 1960, Israel left photography as his main medium to concentrate on drawing in charcoal, pastel and ink. From 1961 to 1963 he was the art director for Harper’s Bazaar magazine where he commissioned Richard Avedon, along with young photographers such as Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Larry Rivers, and established masters such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans. From 1957 to 1963 he worked as a freelance art director for Atlantic Records. In 1963 he began teaching painting and design at Parsons School of Design, Cooper Union and at the Rhode Island School of Design. He also held his own photography workshops. In 1967, he became the art director for Mademoiselle magazine and in 1970, he designed Richard Avedon’s photo exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Diane Arbus’s first monograph after her death. In May 1984 while in Dallas, Texas, working on Richard Avedon’s exhibition, In the American West, Israel suffered a heart attack and died. That is who Marvin Israel was!

In the film photographer Deborah Turbeville describes Israel’s teaching as being similar to the comments I received at school. Tough, direct, challenging and essential. A teaching style that is not for the faint hearted, but one that demands respect and a response. An approach that challenges the student to reach the high standards of the mentor. I have seen a similar approach to photography amongst many of the photographers I have been lucky enough to meet and work with including David Bailey, William Klein and Don McCullin. People who did not, and do not, suffer fools gladly.

Of course, the examples I have given here have all been men, and men, who cut their teeth, and gained their spurs in the 1960s and 1970s. The feedback I received was in 1978 from a male teacher who had grown-up through the same period of time. An age before human resources departments and today’s more enlightened approach to human interaction within the work place and education.

Today, feedback has to focus on the positive, to be supportive and challenging within the students expectation rather than that of the teachers. Israel and Mr Harrison would not be able to act in the way they did, now, in the current learning climate. But is this a good thing? Well, of course it is for the majority of students, however I do feel that a balance of both approaches can be more effective, than an extreme version of either. The term ‘Tough Love’ is often used in this context, but I think that is too crude a description.

Photography is not easy and it has never been easy. Therefore, it is essential that the truth of this reality is made clear to anyone looking to engage with the medium seriously. To not do so would be dishonest, in my opinion. I therefore describe the way in which I teach as ‘Optimistic Realism’. This takes the student on a journey of personal discovery that can and I believe should be challenging. The learning of any creative practice is going to have ups and downs, good times and bad times, successs and failures. That cannot be avoided, unless the student and teacher lack ambition. The good teacher cares for their students, the students scale of potential will be obvious to them, but their success is reliant on hard work and that should always be made clear.

Clear, concise, consistent communication are the basis of such teaching, but without passion for the subject any progression is limited. Marvin Israel was a difficult character, but his influence on photography and photographers cannot be denied. Therefore, I believe that a balance has to be found. One that avoids rudeness, bullying and emotional abuse, but that retains passion, honesty and potentially a sense of individuality. One with an empahasis on the tough, but with a lot of love! Just don’t put the words together!

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), and What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018. Scott continues to work as a photographer, writer and filmmaker and is the Subject Coordinator for both undergraduate and post graduate study of photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England.