View through the camera’s lens

Press, 26 April 1984, Page 22

View through the camera’s lens

When Belinda Richards opened Christchurch’s Photographic Training Centre two and a half years ago, a sceptical television interviewer asked if it would last six months.

“We have proved that we are here for a lot longer than that and are doing well,” the centre director said.

The centre, which opened in Peterborough Street in September 1982, with parttime photographic classes in the evening and exhibitions in the attached gallery by day, has proved so successful that Miss Richards may extend the premises. Seventeen pupils attend the centre’s full-time course which only started this year. Miss Richards hoped to double the student numbers next year, and is looking for a bigger studio in the same Peterborough Street block. The centre also offers a range of part-time courses. The only privately-run institution offering a full-time photographic course in New Zealand the centre is the only alternative to the fulltime Wellington Polytechnic.

“It’s my baby,” said the 28-year-old Miss Richards, who is the sole shareholder and backbone of the centre. “I like this place as a personal place,” she said. “It does not have the impersonality of being part of a larger institution, and students feel free to come to me.”

The idea of setting up a photographic training centre in Christchurch came after working in and directing its equivalent in London. “We converted 12,000 square feet of metal factory into video, photographic and television studios in London in the late 19705,” Miss Richards said.

For the next three years, she toured Europe as part of her job, collecting photographic works and planning future exhibitions. In 1982, after a decade on the other side of the world, she decided she had had enough and returned to New Zea-

land with the intention of setting up something similar on her own.

The dynamic centre owner describes her up bringing as privileged. Reared and privatelyschooled in Timaru she was sent for a year to a finishing school to England.

She does not claim to be a photographer. "But I know what is good, what I like, what pays, and how photographic education should be run.”

The full-time course covers a range of photographic topics including photo-technology, photojournalism, portraiture, colour, advertising, and business management.

Four photographers teach part-time at the centre. Jan Hart, William Wallace, Keith Nicolson and Jonathan Sligh specialise in different areas of photography. The centre is equipped with darkrooms and an expansive work room featuring print covered walls. The atmosphere is warm and lively as the full-time students, whose ages range from 16 to 53 develop films, pore over contact sheets and analyse prints. Full-time at the centre

means hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday, for three 12-week terms. Additional to the outlined courses are the weekly excursions to galleries and work places, as well as talks by guest speakers. The gallery downstairs from the training centre offers exhibitions by New Zealand and European photographers. Miss Richards stresses the importance of exposing students to the works of other photographers, especially those of European artists, which are rarely exhibited in New Zealand. Th% gallery is open to the public. The course aims to produce professional, practical photographers. The diversity of areas covered leaves the students open to decide which area in photography they want to persue. Prerequisites for the course are enthusiasm, an indication that the applicant has an eye for photographic work, and $2500. “I don’t believe in portfolios,” Miss Richards said. “Why be a successful photographer and come to scooi to learn about it?”

The fee covers the costs of materials and tuition and is comparable to the

amount needed to cover material costs at the polytechnic course, she said. Students at the centre are not eligible for tertiary bursaries because of the centre’s private status.

"I feel quite bitter about it. I am providing a place for people who want to further their education and who put in a lot of time and energy, but because the centre is privately run, they are not issued government grants,” Miss Richards said. She pointed to a file thick with correspondence that she has had with the Department of Education on the issue.

The students on the course are not only from the “upper crust.” They are coping with the shortage of funds in a variety of ways. Students spoken to said they were in debt to parents, mothers-in-law, were selling cars, bikes or had secured part-time jobs. Many of the students were older and had savings.

One student, Ms Nan Gee, said the lengths to which students were prepared to go to stay on the course were an indication of how they felt about it.