So, as a community of photographers dedicated to the health of community, what do we do about the fact that photography schools are utterly useless? Personally, I think we should stop the insanity. How? Simple. Let’s all head to the nearest photography school, poor a few thousand gallons of gas on it, and then flick a match on the out-dated, out-of touch institution.

No, no, I’m not an anarchist, and I certainly don’t want anyone to get hurt. But, it’s not an exaggeration to say that people are getting hurt by being lead to believe that professional photography skills are best learned in a photography school.

Wiping out photography schools would invigorate the entire community. Only two backwards-thinking groups of people would lose out. The first is those photographers who fear competition. (Most of them, of course, went to photography schools.) The second group consists of any of the photography schoolteachers who are too lame to go out and get real jobs.

Knowing that you either agree with me or that you are one of the few people who is invested in the ridiculous notion that photo schools have value, I won’t belabor my burn-them-to-the-ground perspective. But if you don’t agree, consider a few bullet points of reason:

• Any animal the planet with a functioning, flexible hand – certainly all primates – can take a picture.

• With just a little bit a practice, the mast majority of humans can learn to take a decent picture.

• Anyone with a passion for making images can learn to make good pictures if they put some focused effort into the process.

• For the people who fall into the above category, the most important thing they can do to improve their image-making – that is, to help them go from good to great — is to engage more fully in the non-photographic aspects of their lives.

This is a critical point and relates to the fact that every successful photographer insists that image-making success comes from focusing on the message, not the technique. And the ability to communicate a message comes from such activities as studying liberal arts, making love, traveling, making love, asking questions, making love, spending time with family, friends and strangers, making love, taking up non-photographic hobbies, making love, and on and on an on.

• Being a successful photographer is not about making amazing images. It’s about making money from making images, whether they are amazing or not. (This was never mentioned to me even once in all my thousands of hours in photography school.)

• To succeed in the business of photography, the most important skills are, not surprisingly, business skills. Therefore, a business class will serve any aspiring photographer much, much profoundly than a class about lighting or some other topic with a much, much shorter educational half-life, such as Photoshop skills.

• The most important business skill for photographers to master is that of networking. Photography schools, like most photographers, are very insular, and the networking opportunities are limited mostly to networking with future colleagues. Photography students are much better off creating a life-long network of non-photographer friends who can help them land jobs, not commiserate about lack of their business skills.

These reasons should be enough to steer anyone clear from going to photography school. However, I’m sure there are some dinosaurs out there that will piss and moan and argue that, even in 2009, photography schools retain some value. To them, I slam dunk my argument with two phrases: “Electronic Imaging” and “The Internet.” DOH!

That’s right. If there was ever a time when photography school had value, it’s been eradicated by the freight-train momentum of the modern era of photography. It’s not simply that “anyone can take a good picture.” That’s true and important. And so is the affordability and accessibility to modern digital image-making tools as well as the online, dirt-cheap manners of learning.

But, image-making skills aside, what really matters (and why photography schools don’t matter) is that the entire business landscape of photography has drastically shifted, and it’s going to keep on shifting more and more rapidly as the years go on.

Everyday “citizen journalists” are beating professional photojournalists to the punch with their cell phones. Geographically isolated fine art photographers are making impressive sales through the global gallery that is the Web, while their portfolio-lugging Luddite competitors walk sulkily from gallery to gallery in New York, as if this still has any relevance.

If you are a dinosaur and don’t like what you’re reading, don’t worry. Professional Photography 2.0 is an inclusive world. Like all of us, you will have to get used to rapid, unsettling, uncertain change. But one thing is for certain: While there’s room for all of us to make money making images, there is no room for traditional photography schools. So let’s burn ‘em to the ground, rejoice and move forward.

Tags: Brooks Institute, Photography Education, RIT, School of Photographic Arts & Sciences