ARTS 2110

** all James reviews were taken down from last semester, most likely due to his poor feedback. I am reposting this after already submitting this review

For this course, have the following expectations
1. 10-15 hours a week, excluding lecture, when there is a critique due the following week (I counted my hours, which were on the low side of the class)
2. No positive feedback, things are pretty strict in the class and everything is based on exact technique (made people cry in class)
3. Excruciating 2.5 hour lectures of slideshows in the dark
4. Little guidance and support on creative decisions for your projects
5. Around $110 out of pocket to pay for film, negative sleeves, a binder, and RC paper

This is not to say this class was the worst ever, but I'd advise you only take this class because you have to.

****Similar to the other post my original review got taken down, so here is another one that hopefully paints a good picture of this class and James****

Everything the previous post said was accurate with the amount of hours, critique, cost, etc. In my opinion, James should not be an instructor of any kind ever again. It was very obvious that he hated his job and did not want to be there which is not a great environment to learn in. In addition, he would often make "jokes" which just came off as cruel, especially during critique. (No one would laugh). He had very high expectations for your prints and photographs but would not give much guidance on how to succeed besides "more 5." In fact, the only way to do well in this class is to have all of your prints be extremely contrasty (no gray) AND just already be good at photography from the very start of class. You do not know your grade until the very end as well. I feel like he held unswayable opinions of people abilities after the first project, so there was no way to succeed no matter how much you improved. There was just no sense of encouragement from James, and it almost felt like he was praying on your downfall by the way he critiqued people's prints. It's a shame because I thought film photography was interesting, but now that medium is forever corrupted in my mind by James's horrible sassy personality. He probably had to get this job because of an unsuccessful and mediocre art career and now he is just angry at the world. A silver lining in all of this is how I've bonded over disliking James with other people in the class. I would not wish this class on my worst enemy. DO NOT TAKE