One of the many certificates Sinclair offers is the Photographic Technology certificate, a 29 credit hour program that includes a variety of photography classes. It was created for students who are a little more entrepreneurial and who may be interested in commercial photography.
“But our approach is a more fine art approach,” Dr. Kelly Joslin said. “We are really teaching students to be artists.”
Dr. Joslin has been the Chair of the Art Department at Sinclair since 2005 and a faculty member since 1998. She oversees and manages the art department as a whole, teaches courses in art appreciation, art history, and photography, and is a working artist.
“That helps me relate to students better, I think, because I’m actively working [as an artist],” she said.
Professor Richard Jurus is the faculty member who founded Sinclair’s photography program and he still teaches classes. He believes that some of the best commercial photographers are also fine artists. He has spent his entire career working as an educator in the photography discipline. His undergrad and two master’s degrees are in photography.
“[He] has more credentials than any faculty member I’ve ever encountered, even at four-year institutions, in terms of—really—that focus on photography,” Dr. Joslin said.
She says Jurus’ experience is what really has enriched Sinclair’s photo program.
“In general, we teach a lot of things that many schools are not teaching students,” she said.
Dr. Joslin bases this on what she has heard from students who have completed the photo certificate or the Associate’s of Arts degree at Sinclair and then gone on to other schools.
“They will come back and tell me what their experiences were, how they were kind of shocked at the things students weren’t really aware of,” she said. “We teach students how to professionally dry mount their work and prepare it for actual exhibition.”
Sinclair staff wants students to be able to transition from being in a photography class to working as professional artists.
“A lot of students have told me that they were glad that the professional aspect was taught to them at Sinclair because they really didn’t get that in their other programs,” she said.
The number of photo classes Sinclair offers has been impacted by COVID since many of them require face-to-face courses. For about a year, Dr. Joslin couldn’t teach any in-person classes. Starting last January, she was able to bring a smaller number of students back into the classroom.
The photo certificate offers Black and White Darkroom Photography 1 and 2, Non-Silver Photography, Studio Photography, Digital Color Photography, and Computer Photography, as well as supporting courses of history of photography, and Portfolio Development for people who are completing their certificate.
“Our focus really is very much about the photographic process and really keeping darkroom photography alive and well,” Dr. Joslin said. “Many schools have let that go by the wayside in favor of digital.”
It can be difficult to keep a photo lab running. The equipment and chemistry are expensive and need to be maintained. It was only because Dr. Joslin had been trained by Professor Jurus that they were able to keep the darkroom open at Sinclair.
“People retire, they hire new people and they either don’t have the background in the darkroom-based processes, or they just don’t want to deal with it,” she said.
As a photographer, artist, and teacher, Dr. Joslin sees a lot of value in learning darkroom processes. It can allow someone to expand their creativity and explore all of the methods and techniques film photography has to offer.
“I think there is something to that process of black and white, where you really are creating something and you have to develop that film yourself,” she said. “So the quality of what you get is totally reliant on your ability to load the film on that reel and get it through the developing process. Then once that is complete, you have your negatives going into the darkroom.”
Sinclair has four photo teachers; Professor Jurus, Greg Holston, and Professor Kevin Harris, and Dr. Joslin.
“We’ve been blessed at Sinclair to have faculty who really care in all of the subjects,” she said. “I love being the chair of the department and meeting with the faculty on a regular basis and really just getting their passion for the disciplines that they teach.”
COVID is still preventing their ability to teach some things they used to, such as using a large format view camera. There is only one and students aren’t able to share due to social distancing. The darkroom is very close quarters.
“So it’s just been really different trying to come up with ways to give students the experience but also keep everybody safe,” she said. “We have to clean all the equipment in between classes. Our equipment tech, thank goodness, has been really great about coming in and sanitizing, so in addition to what the college is doing, we want to have all the equipment really clean.”
Professor Jurus also created a lot of educational content for the new format of classes, which the students found very helpful.
There is no doubt that Sinclair offers top-notch photography education.
“I know just from my own daughter’s experiences at Ohio University, which were very positive, she said she always felt so proud because even though she was coming from a community college setting, she said I was always incredibly prepared for every class that I got into as I was moving through to finish my bachelor’s degree,” Dr. Joslin said. “She said ‘never once did I feel like I missed anything. In fact, I was always ahead of the curve.’”
Dr. Joslin said that “Professor Jurus always says: ‘we want Sinclair to be the last darkroom standing,’ so that is the goal.”
Sinclair students will surely be able to enjoy the darkroom for years to come.
Rachel Rosen
Reporter/Social Media Coordinator