Author: Mitch Cde Baca
When I tell people I am an economics major, they are always surprised by my next statement – photography is my real interest. For the past five years, I have enjoyed using this medium to interact with my environment. In fact, I never planned to study economics in college. When I transferred to Oxy at the beginning of this year, I had hopes the college could offer a more concrete program in which I could learn the business of photography, as well as hone the skills I began to teach myself.
Unfortunately, after nearly a year here, I remain frustrated that I cannot practice my artistic passion in an academic setting. Occidental, unfortunately, has decided to ignore photography as a thriving art form and popular area of study.
While I understand Occidental is a small liberal arts college, not a large university with a wealthy arts department, there is no excuse for the Art History and Visual Arts department to leave photography out of its curriculum, or for the campus not to formally invest in a darkroom for student and faculty use.
This past semester, I had an empty space in my schedule that I wanted to fill with a photography class. Without much prior research, I eagerly headed to Reggie to search for a great class where I could use a darkroom to develop and print the film photographs I take in my free time. My search gave one result: History of Photography.
Before my ripple of disappointment turned into a complete wave, I checked the course catalog to see if Oxy offered other photography courses during other semesters. Perhaps, I thought, I just picked a bad semester to take a photography class.
This search gave me two results: History of Photography and “Photography Against the Grain,” a course aimed at analyzing photography and its significance in “our notions of self, family, work, and nation.” The catalog description made no mention of a darkroom or practical photography experience. I was out of luck and settled with History of Photography. I didn’t expect the class to provide me with the practical photography experience I was looking for, but I decided to make the best of what I had at my disposal. However, by taking the class, I found there was a lack of basic information pertaining to photography within the arts curriculum.
There have been many occasions in History of Photography when I felt my classmates would be better served with an elementary photography class as a prerequisite. If a student does not understand the science behind camera obscura, how could that student understand how the first cameras worked? If they cannot grasp why a 4×5 negative holds infinitely more detail than a traveler’s 35mm camera, how could they understand the backlash against the production of these cameras in the first place?
An economics student would feel lost in International Economics without knowing the intricacies of a basic economic model the student would learn in Economics 101. If provided a Photography 101 class, students could learn the basic scientific and mechanical background behind how cameras and photography work. With this information, students would be able to keep up with the technological advancements that drove each movement they study in a class like History of Photography.
Discouraged by the lack of practical photography experience in History of Photography, I decided I would try to find a darkroom on campus where I could work in my free time. However, I was shocked to find that there were no real facilities for students interested in photography to utilize.
Of course, the argument can be made that Oxy is too small a place for a darkroom facility to be installed and maintained. It might seem that, out of the 1,800 or so students roaming around campus, only a few would be interested enough to utilize such a specialized area as a darkroom. However, studio art majors have specific painting and ceramics studios they use for only a select number of classes they will take before they graduate. For example, a large section of the basement of Weingart is reserved for print making, yet only two print making classes will be taught next semester.
Thus, it seems evident that Oxy’s art facilities can cater to art students in almost any discipline. However, as I speak with more people and learn the ins and outs of Oxy, I hear the same question repeated – where is photography at Occidental? I hear of secret darkrooms in the back of Thorne and in the basement of Norris Hall, and equally secret means of gaining access to them, but I cannot understand why these facilities are under wraps and restricted to the rest of campus.
I started a darkroom in my house for less than $1,000. Additionally, safely disposing of photographic chemistry has little cost. Two of the three necessary chemicals for film and paper development can be diluted before they are safely sent down the drain, and the third chemical has such a high content of silver that many recycling companies will pay the recycler for the recovered metal. There is no reason a college with a multi-million dollar endowment cannot invest in a darkroom all students can enjoy.
At Occidental, I am labeled as an economics major, and by this label, many will not know of all the time I have invested in photography. This great campus does a disservice to its students by leaving a major area of the arts out of its curriculum and away from its students.
If, in May 2012, I have only taken economics courses without the opportunity to take a photography course, I will at least be able to analyze this situation economically: In my time at Oxy, there was always a demand for a photography program in this esteemed college’s art curriculum. Sadly, there was no supply.
Mitch Cde Baca is a sophomore Economics major. He can be reached at cdebaca@oxy.edu.
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