10 Tips for Helping Students Prepare for Critique
1. Theodore Roosevelt once said, “No one cares about how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Photographers have to feel a sense of safety in order to feel comfortable with presenting their photos for critique. One way to support that feeling is to point out to everyone that the class is a community of people who all aspire to become better photographers and is willing to help each other to achieve that goal. Every person in the community should approach critiques with kindness, compassion, and a willingness to help their classmate grow. It is important to create a foundation where students can think about the idea that, “Kindness and compassion are among the principle things that make our lives meaningful. They are the source of lasting happiness and joy. They are the foundation of a good heart, the heart of one who acts out of a desire to help others.” (Ferrucci, 2007)
2. Help photographers understand that the purpose of the critique is to help them recognize more about their photography by enlisting the perceptions of other photographers. It is because photographers have a limited ability to comprehend the depth of their own visual compositions. It is difficult for any artist to understand everything there is to see in his or her own work. Photographers need the feedback of others in order to broaden their understanding and grow.
3. “Artists are perceived to establish a strong bond with their art to the point of merging into one ‘entity.’” (Costache, 2012) Many times students do not feel there is a distinction between the photography and the photographer. Students can become confused about the boundary between themselves, their lives, their artistic vision, and their image on the wall. Like any other artists, they may perceive all these things as one. Photographers have a great degree of personal investment in their work and therefore can easily misunderstand feedback on their work as personal comments about their lives, talent, or beings. Artist Hollie Chastain once confessed that, “The product is a piece of yourself, so of course if the reception is not the greatest, then it can feel like a direct hit to who you are as a person.” (Popova, 3/27/15) The teacher must explain the distinctions between the maker and what is made.
4. Students bring with them a lot of self-doubt, insecurity, and a lack of confidence about the things they make, including photography. The teacher can point out that one’s journey in photography is a personal one and need not be compared to anyone else’s journey. The only person whose talent, skill, and artistic vision a photographer is in competition with is himself or herself. Also, that the photographic assessment process is designed to look at where a student is in their creative journey and where they want to go so students and faculty can do whatever they can to help them get there. And, it is important to note that every other student in the classroom community is on the same journey.
5. Students can feel more prepared to show their work when they have prepared a brief statement about why they made the images they did and why they chose these 2-3 photos as their most successful representations. They may also include titles for the photographs.
6. Receiving feedback from others, especially in a group context, can be overwhelming. It is not uncommon for a photographer to ‘zone out’ after ten minutes of critique and become unable to absorb everything that is being said. To anticipate this phenomenon it is a good practice to either write down what others say or ask a partner to take notes. Listening is a skill that takes time to develop, especially in this situation. As part of a listening practice, students should ask questions about any comments they do not understand, whether from peers or the teacher.
7. Even though the goal for reviewer in critique is to be objective, ultimately every comment that is made is based on the experiences, memories, and observations of the reviewer. Those perceptions may be backed by solid evidence or they may not. Feedback may be relevant to what a photographer is trying to accomplish with their images, or it may not be relevant. It is up to the presenter of the work to decide what in the critique is valuable and what is not. Each photographer has to sort out, for themself what feedback they can use and what they cannot. Photographers should question and examine what was said to see if any of it rings true as something that will help the grow. Finally, they can decide on what is valuable then let the rest go.
8. Educators can encourage students to be open to hearing what others say. They can try to get into a psychological state of receptiveness where they can actively listen to other’s feedback. The alternative is become reactive. “In a reactive response, you react to criticism either by dismissing everything that has been said or by trying to please the instructor and following suggestions to the letter in spite of your better instincts. An active response, and a better way to deal with criticism, is to listen carefully, take notes, and isolate issues that have been raised. The biggest danger in any critique…is the tendency to see all criticism as approval or disapproval and to see comments as prescriptive orders.”
It is a vulnerable place from which to enter a critique, but has the potential to elicit more honest heart-felt observations than by taking a stance of defensiveness. This is a hard position to practice, but the more a photographer experiences non confrontational, safe critiques the more likely it is for the presenter to open up.
9. Students should try and not become defensive and feel the need to respond to every comment, especially to explain or refute what was said. After all, these comments are based on perceptions from others and there may be valuable information in what they have to say. Even if the presenter disagrees.
10. Finally, students should take some time to digest the feedback they received and take some action on the information they received. At the next critique students will be more enthusiastic about speaking when they see that a photographer listened and took their comments seriously.
1. Theodore Roosevelt once said, “No one cares about how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Photographers have to feel a sense of safety in order to feel comfortable with presenting their photos for critique. One way to support that feeling is to point out to everyone that the class is a community of people who all aspire to become better photographers and is willing to help each other to achieve that goal. Every person in the community should approach critiques with kindness, compassion, and a willingness to help their classmate grow. It is important to create a foundation where students can think about the idea that, “Kindness and compassion are among the principle things that make our lives meaningful. They are the source of lasting happiness and joy. They are the foundation of a good heart, the heart of one who acts out of a desire to help others.” (Ferrucci, 2007)
2. Help photographers understand that the purpose of the critique is to help them recognize more about their photography by enlisting the perceptions of other photographers. It is because photographers have a limited ability to comprehend the depth of their own visual compositions. It is difficult for any artist to understand everything there is to see in his or her own work. Photographers need the feedback of others in order to broaden their understanding and grow.
3. “Artists are perceived to establish a strong bond with their art to the point of merging into one ‘entity.’” (Costache, 2012) Many times students do not feel there is a distinction between the photography and the photographer. Students can become confused about the boundary between themselves, their lives, their artistic vision, and their image on the wall. Like any other artists, they may perceive all these things as one. Photographers have a great degree of personal investment in their work and therefore can easily misunderstand feedback on their work as personal comments about their lives, talent, or beings. Artist Hollie Chastain once confessed that, “The product is a piece of yourself, so of course if the reception is not the greatest, then it can feel like a direct hit to who you are as a person.” (Popova, 3/27/15) The teacher must explain the distinctions between the maker and what is made.
4. Students bring with them a lot of self-doubt, insecurity, and a lack of confidence about the things they make, including photography. The teacher can point out that one’s journey in photography is a personal one and need not be compared to anyone else’s journey. The only person whose talent, skill, and artistic vision a photographer is in competition with is himself or herself. Also, that the photographic assessment process is designed to look at where a student is in their creative journey and where they want to go so students and faculty can do whatever they can to help them get there. And, it is important to note that every other student in the classroom community is on the same journey.
5. Students can feel more prepared to show their work when they have prepared a brief statement about why they made the images they did and why they chose these 2-3 photos as their most successful representations. They may also include titles for the photographs.
6. Receiving feedback from others, especially in a group context, can be overwhelming. It is not uncommon for a photographer to ‘zone out’ after ten minutes of critique and become unable to absorb everything that is being said. To anticipate this phenomenon it is a good practice to either write down what others say or ask a partner to take notes. Listening is a skill that takes time to develop, especially in this situation. As part of a listening practice, students should ask questions about any comments they do not understand, whether from peers or the teacher.
7. Even though the goal for reviewer in critique is to be objective, ultimately every comment that is made is based on the experiences, memories, and observations of the reviewer. Those perceptions may be backed by solid evidence or they may not. Feedback may be relevant to what a photographer is trying to accomplish with their images, or it may not be relevant. It is up to the presenter of the work to decide what in the critique is valuable and what is not. Each photographer has to sort out, for themself what feedback they can use and what they cannot. Photographers should question and examine what was said to see if any of it rings true as something that will help the grow. Finally, they can decide on what is valuable then let the rest go.
8. Educators can encourage students to be open to hearing what others say. They can try to get into a psychological state of receptiveness where they can actively listen to other’s feedback. The alternative is become reactive. “In a reactive response, you react to criticism either by dismissing everything that has been said or by trying to please the instructor and following suggestions to the letter in spite of your better instincts. An active response, and a better way to deal with criticism, is to listen carefully, take notes, and isolate issues that have been raised. The biggest danger in any critique…is the tendency to see all criticism as approval or disapproval and to see comments as prescriptive orders.”
It is a vulnerable place from which to enter a critique, but has the potential to elicit more honest heart-felt observations than by taking a stance of defensiveness. This is a hard position to practice, but the more a photographer experiences non confrontational, safe critiques the more likely it is for the presenter to open up.
9. Students should try and not become defensive and feel the need to respond to every comment, especially to explain or refute what was said. After all, these comments are based on perceptions from others and there may be valuable information in what they have to say. Even if the presenter disagrees.
10. Finally, students should take some time to digest the feedback they received and take some action on the information they received. At the next critique students will be more enthusiastic about speaking when they see that a photographer listened and took their comments seriously.