The mediocre teacher tells.  The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.  The great teacher inspires.
William Arthur Ward

1 – Can Anyone Be An Artist?

If anyone could be Monet, or Picasso, or Dali, or Adams, or Weston, or whoever your favorite artist is, wouldn’t that make these artists commonplace?  Wouldn’t it make their contribution, their achievements, their oeuvre in short, meaningless? Would it make them like the rest of us and would they lose their aura?

In other words is art the function of a personal disposition and of intangible elements that cannot be taught, or is art the result of a fruitful environment?  For me the answer is art is the outcome of both.  However, of the two, provided that one has an interest in the arts and the desire to make art, it is living in a fruitful environment that is the most important.

After teaching for over 20 years I heard story after story of dashed dreams and lost hopes from students who were discouraged to practice art, let alone consider make it a career, and who all their lives suffered from having to let go of what was their true passion.  For these countless number of students the problem wasn’t lack of disposition.  The problem was was lack of encouragement, or worst the insistence from parents and significant others that they quit doing art because it does not pay, because it is not a proper profession, because it offers no future or because of other negative opinions about art.
The problem was also the lack of proper guidance, of mentorship if you will.  It is difficult to find one’s path in the art world and without guidance one if often left wandering in the dark. Discouragement often follows and without support the solution is usually to find a more mainstream path, one that isn’t as challenging.

2 – Teaching Vision

The case is often made that vision cannot be taught.  According to this argument only technique can be taught.  Vision being technical it is therefore something that one must learn on his or her own.  This argument is compounded by the belief that for some photography is a technology, not an art.  As such it can only be taught as a technique, not as an art form.   Therefore, according to this opinion, only technical instruction is relevant. Artistic instruction is superficial at best and useless at worst.

I heard this argument so many times I stopped listening a long time ago. First of all, all arts make use of technology and any technology and be used to create art.  To name but two, painting is just as technological as photography.  It is based on the technology required to create paint, canvas, brushes, varnishes and so on, while photography is based on the technology required to create cameras, lenses, inks, papers and so on.  Interestingly, some of this technology is common to both mediums, for example the use of pigments in both paints and printing inks to name but one.

Second, those who make the case that art and vision cannot be taught do so out of ignorance.  Quite simply they do not know how to teach art or vision. It is certainly easy to say that vision cannot be taught if one doesn’t know how to teach it. After all, to take but one example, if one knows nothing about writing software, if writing code is obscure and incomprehensible to someone, then to say that writing software cannot be taught would accurately reflect the fact that this individual cannot teach it.

The problem therefore is not to say that something cannot be taught, be it vision, code or anything else for that matter. The problem is to make the claim that a subject cannot be taught because the complainant is not familiar with it, or because they do not have the instructional skills to do so, or because their students have no interest in learning this subject.

I would be the first to say that I cannot teach anyone how to write software or, to take another example, how to assemble a microprocessor.  No doubt there.  And if I was pressed further I would say that it is impossible to teach either because software code cannot be learned and assembling a microprocessor from scratch can only be done by robots, in a lab, with machinery so complex and sophisticated that the process is incomprehensible.  Would I be accurate?  I don’t think so.  Anyone with the knowledge to write code or build a microprocessor would prove me wrong. In fact, people are learning how to write code and build microprocessors as we speak. Therefore teaching how to do so is possible.  How this is done, how that teaching take place, I have no clue at all. However I am fully aware that not knowing does not preclude this being possible.

I believe the same to be true of vision. Certainly vision is of a very different nature than writing code or building microprocessors, being an abstract concept instead of a physical object.  However, the two are more closely related than they may appear at first because behind every line of code and every microprocessor lies the vision of the person or the team of people who created it.  Vision therefore is at the root of all things, because behind every physical object lies the vision of its inventor.

So why don’t we teach vision?  After all, it would seem to be an important subject to teach!  I believe that the answer is because we simply have not reached the point were vision is included in the curriculum, at least not the mainstream curriculum and not the one used in the majority of schools. In other words is vision taught?  Yes.  Is it taught widely?  No.  Where is it taught?  Where it matters for the outcome of the students’ future.  Does it matter for the outcome of an artist’s career?  Yes.  Therefore vision should be taught in the arts.  Indeed it is, but only at the highest level of art education.  As I said it is not mainstream and so as the level of art courses become more mainstream, vision falls out of the curriculum almost immediately.  In short, vision is taught at the Beaux Arts but it may not be at the local Community Art Center.  I know because I attended the Beaux Arts in Paris and I did learn about vision there. In between these two extremes vision is taught only in a minor fashion, if it is taught at all.

3 – Mentors

This brings us to the central idea behind this essay: mentors.  Mentors, and by extension mentoring, is how you learn the insider’s view of a trade, in this case fine art photography.  Mentoring has always been part of learning what it means to be an artist. Notice that I say ‘what it means’ and not just ‘how to take photographs, or paint, or draw.’  I say it that way because mentoring is not primarily about technique.  Yes, technique is important.  However you can learn technique on your own.  Today you can also learn it in books, in online classes, or through video and audio tutorials such as my Mastery Workshops on DVD/USB series of tutorials.

Mentoring is about a lot more than technique. First and foremost it is about being inspired by someone you respect and whose work you admire. It is about learning how to be an artist and how to live like an artist. It is about studying with someone who is where you want to be and who shows you the path to follow to get there. Every professional artist has had, and often still has, one or several mentors.  I use professional in the sense of becoming professionally accomplished, not in the sense of making a living selling photographs or fine art.  One can be a professional without earning his or her living from selling art.

Having a mentor is having a physical connection connection with the world of art. It means working one on one with someone, being there with that person and working with them side by side. Today, with so much of our lives being long distance and virtual, mentoring is becoming uncommon. It is tempting to try and replace it by ‘something else’.  A digital version of mentoring for example.  A one on one digital work environment.  That can work up to a point, but that point is the same as an advanced video and audio tutorial.

True mentorship requires two persons being in the same room at the same time; real rooms, not virtual environments.  You may ask ‘why.’  I expect you to because I would ask if I was you.  The answer is simple: because there are things that can only be said, taught and learned in person. There are things that can be spoken but not written. The verbal exchange that is part of mentorship allows communication that cannot take place any other way.

There are other reasons as well.  Because there are things that can only be done in person.  A print review for example during which you point to specific aspects of the print, or put a print next to other prints to compare it, or make physical changes to the print to make your point.  Because learning is being in contact with someone.  Because learning is sharing someone’s living and working environment; not just seeing photographs of that environment and not just trying to imagine what it is like to live and work there.  Because mentorship is a physical and emotional connection.  Because sharing knowledge is non verbal at times.  Because if you are truly influenced by someone you want to meet them at some point; not just to shake their hand and say ‘I like your work’ but spend time studying with them and learning what they have to teach you. Because it is important for you to meet and work with a master.  Because you want to do this this regardless of time, space, expense or other hurdles that may stand in the way.  Because mentorship is first and foremost about inspiration and there is nothing more inspirational than to see first hand what inspires the master that inspires you.  Because doing so is going straight to the source.  Because there is no equivalent.

Every true artist has a mentor.  Most artists have several.  I have had mentors, both before the internet was available and after.  I have been inspired by them.  I have learned from them.  I have shared their successes, their failures and their fights.  I have been part of their lives and today their teachings are part of my work.  I can see it in the colors that I work with.  The compositions I use. The vision I share.

Growth as an artist cannot come only from books, tutorials or on-line courses.  There comes a time when someone has to take a personal interest in what you do, in what you want to achieve.  There comes a time when someone has to help you, not just help ‘readers’ or ‘photographers’ or ‘those who want to reach the next step.’ Help you, just you, by focusing on your unique personal needs, by looking at your work, at prints not at images on screen because prints are better at showing what you can really do that an image on a monitor or other viewing device.

Mentors are important in helping us with our vision.  Not only can their work be inspirational, their lifestyle can be inspirational as well.  I learned to look not only at the images that they create but also look at the life they live and at the things they do besides making art.

4 – Choosing A Mentor

In nearly all matters related to art, what is most important is your opinion,
not the opinion of others who, because of the nature of art,
are unlikely to have the same vision as you. 

Choosing the right mentor is essential.  It has to be someone you like and feel comfortable working with.  Quite obviously, if you don’t like the person you are studying with, the experience will be unfulfilling and you will not be able to do your best.

More importantly, you have to like the work of your mentor.  Even more so, their work has to be inspiring to you.  It has to be work that you not only aspire to do yourself, but want, at all costs, to achieve.  If you do not like the work of the person you are studying with, it is unlikely that you will like the work you will create under the guidance of that person.

Finally, this person, this mentor, has to respect your personal vision as well as your taste and opinions in regards to art. In nearly all matters related to art, what is most important is your opinion, not the opinion of others who, because of the nature of art, are unlikely to have the same vision as you.  This rule applies to your mentor.  Even though he or she will be guiding you through the labyrinth of the art world and of the creation process, this person must respect your vision otherwise the process will be frustrating at best and demoralizing at worst.

5 – Conclusion Is achieving vision a realistic goal?

One may ask why teach vision at all.  After all, if it presents so many challenges it may be best to drop it and let students find out about it on their own.  However doing so would be a disservice.  Vision is too important to be let go of.

It is the artist’s responsibility to create a personal reality. To do so artists need vision to see the world they want to create. They create this reality with each work of art they make. Each work of art is a piece of the puzzle and all together they form the unique personal reality that each artist is constructing.

As such, knowing what you want to express, what you see in your mind, your vision is in short, is fundamentally important.  Similarly, knowing how to translate this vision into a three dimensional reality, a physical piece that everyone can see and touch, is equally important. This means being able to see something in your mind’s eye, being able to decipher this thing and being able to describe it to yourself.  Afterwards it means being able to find the means to make it a reality, to transform it through specific techniques into a three dimensional object that everyone can see, touch, admire and experience.

Artists do not just make things.  They create pieces that represent emotions and feelings, work of art that have a meaning beyond their physical reality, images that stand for ideas and concepts.

Art is not about technique alone.  A good mentor knows that and has no intentions of creating technicians.  A good mentor wants to help their student become the best artist they can be.  Yes, that implies mastering technique and it implies working on technique to achieve mastery.  But it implies a whole lot more. It implies knowing your purpose for making art. It implies finding your identity as an artist, and it implies discovering the meaning you want to impart in the artwork you create.  These are concepts that are developed over time rather than learned in a day.  These are concepts influenced by what inspires us rather than by which camera, software or tool we use.  These are skills fostered by mentorship.

A mentor is a guide, someone who shows us the path to follow to be who we want to be and to do what we want to do.  Along this path it is often minute details that make all the difference, details that cannot be gleaned any other way than by being there, walking along this path together, a path we would not follow by ourselves.  Even decades later I can recall small remarks that seemed benign at the time, testaments to my mentors that I carry with me, fleeting instants of time that continue to motivate me and inform my work to this day.

5 – About Alain Briot

I create fine art photographs, teach workshops and offer DVD tutorials on composition, image conversion, optimization, printing and marketing.  I am the author of Mastering Landscape Photography, Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity and Personal Style and Marketing Fine Art Photography.  All 3 books are available in eBook format on my website at this link: http://beautiful-landscape.com/Ebooks-Books-1-2-3.html

Printed books Link
eBooks link

You can find more information about my work, writings and tutorials as well as subscribe to my Free Monthly Newsletter on my website at http://www.beautiful-landscape.com .  You will receive 40 free eBooks immediately after subscribing.

I welcome your comments on this essay as well as on my other essays. You can reach me directly by emailing me at alain@beautiful-landscape.com.

Alain Briot
Arizona
February 2015

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