The NCEA Best

There is a show touring NZ, recently set up at the Govett-Brewster here in New Plymouth by our national educational authorities who want to instruct teenagers of our country on how to become famous photographers.

Local secondary school students of photography were brought, even by bus, to see these portfolios, the top scoring ones from last year. They were being shown what the look was that the examiners were wanting. The remarkable sameness to the portofolios was, as usual, for they look similar year after year, truly alarming. Clearly it is a house style.

Once, a decade ago at Selwyn College, I tried to teach this approach to photography even though I knew that I would not be able to pass this exam myself. I quit after a year because I was ashamed to be part of such a questionable approach.