“If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies…”

- Albert Einstein
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I received another call this month. Another cry for help. Making the average now about once per month since the beginning of the year. Calls from from recent graduates and emerging photographers trying to figure out how to make it as a photographer, how to market themselves, how to understand the business of photography.

Rather than regurgitate my conversations, I’d like to take the time to call out a few of the photography programs out there (including my Alma Mater) that don’t require their curriculum to include a business in photography course. I’d like to scold you for allowing students to graduate without an understanding of how the real world works, while instead instilling a glorified ideological viewpoint from the ivory tower.

A quick look at the curriculum in some of the best photojournalism programs (Ohio, Missouri, Western Kentucky) shows few if any courses related to business practices. None are required. Art and technology programs (RIT, RISD, Art Institute of Chicago), same story. If the courses are offered, graduates often say they are boring, impractical and not worth attending. Instructors urge students to assist and learn business practices from established photographers and place emphasis for learning after graduation. I recently spoke to a graduate of RIT who said it was one of the least helpful classes they attended at the school.

So let me get this straight. Most photographers would agree that photography is a business. To make it, you need to understand how to run a business and market yourself. Yet, many of the best schools out there are not emphasizing the importance of this in their education and telling students to learn it from people who don’t know it very well?

We are working in a field where istockphoto is the most popular stock agency in terms of web traffic. We are negotiating with Art Buyers who are increasingly asking us to own the full copyrights to our images. Newspapers are laying photographers off…again. Ad revenues are in decline with the recent economic downturn. The line between amateur and pro is diminishing because of lower barriers to entry into the field…and schools are saturating the market full of photographers who don’t understand their own businesses?

You should be ashamed.

You should be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies.

You are hurting this field and endangering your students by ignoring this essential part of their education.

You are making my phone bills higher.

Come on! It’s not that hard. Why not require them to leave school with a business plan AND marketing plan in hand along with a portfolio?

Photography is sink or swim. You’re not even giving them floaties.

The Monk