Re: Brooks Institute of Photography
- From: "Sonny Carter" <sonc.hegr@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: leica@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2008 19:14:09 -0500
You are indeed lucky. Brooks was a dream of mine for most of high school,
then broadcast journalism seduced me, and I went that way instead. I
joined the second generation of news photographers, not too late for Filmos
and Auricons, but early enough to be one of the first Minicam operators in
the country, and later produced Satellite feeds.
Still, when I meet a Brooks guy, I wonder, what might have been?
Congratulations my friend.
--
Regards,
Sonny
http://www.sonc.com
Natchitoches, Louisiana
USA
On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 6:29 PM, Jim Brick <jim@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> LEGgers,
> In the guise of Nathan, I decided to talk about (and show) what I've been
> up to.
>
> Over the past few months I've been spending a considerable amount of time
> at my old alma mater, Brooks Institute of Photography.
>
> The first real campus was (actually still is) an estate in Montecito.
> Montecito is a very upscale community that sits above Santa Barbara, CA,
> with a great view of the Santa Barbara beaches, waterfront, Pacific ocean,
> and channel islands. The estate was the Graholm estate, built somewhere
> around 1900 and had something to do with the Henry Ford family. The Brooks
> family initially lived there and, of course, it was the school. The estate
> is quite large and easily handled a hundred or so students. When I was
> there, there was maybe fifty students total. Ernie Brooks Jr. (son of the
> founder Ernest Brooks Sr.) is my age and actually went through the school
> (as a student) at the same time that I did.
>
> The Brooks Institute Montecito campus, as far as I am concerned, IS Brooks
> Institute of Photography. Brooks now consists of five campi (plural of
> campus), and the Brooks family no longer owns the school. The school is now
> a full fledged college, offering BA's in professional photography, visual
> journalism, visual arts, film & video production, and master of fine art
> degrees.
>
> The original campus, Montecito campus (my campus!), is being sold. This is
> very very sad and is extremely difficult for me to process. They held a wake
> for the campus on June 18th. The selling of the Brooks Institute Montecito
> estate was so unnerving to Ernie Brooks Jr. (the owner/president/CEO for a
> couple of decades after his dad, Ernest Brooks Sr., handed over the reins),
> he could not attend.
>
> My wife Jennie, and I, attended the wake. In order to be able to process
> the sale, I decided to photograph the Montecito campus and make a book. I
> have roughly fifty photographs so far and over the next couple of months
> (the Montecito campus will be turned over to the new owners somewhere around
> November 15th), I will continue to photograph the nuances of the campus. I
> was given a key which opens every door, and allows me to go anywhere and get
> into everything. I'll finish the photography and then start working on the
> book.
>
> I've put up a few pictures of the original Brooks Institute Montecito
> campus. This is just a 'mini' preview so you can see what the Montecito
> campus actually looks like.
>
> http://www.visualimpressions.com/Brooks_Institute_mini/index.html
>
> During my recent days at Brooks Institute, Jennie and I befriended some of
> the current students. I have lots of stories to tell about them but for the
> purposes of this post, I'll just post a couple of 'casual' portraits. I
> photographed them standing by some of their work, and at a barbecue held
> Santa Barbara's Shoreline park. The last portrait is of Hallie Mac, a server
> in 'The Natural Cafe', where we always eat lunch, sometimes dinner. That is
> her real hair, not a wig!
>
>
> http://www.visualimpressions.com/Brooks_Institute_casual_portraits/index.html
>
> The other interesting thing that happened is, I was asked to give the
> commencement speech at the Brooks Institute graduation, held on August 31st
> (last Sunday). I, of course, accepted. How often, over one's lifetime, does
> one get asked to be a part of the very soul of one's passion? Typically,
> never. This was an honor beyond anything I could imagine. So last Sunday, I
> gave the commencement speech to the graduation class, 150 graduates plus
> family and friends. Second largest Brooks graduating class ever. They filled
> the Arlington theater, plus the balcony. This was a fabulous experience.
> Absolutely fabulous!
>
> I am truly lucky that I went to Brooks Institute of Photography, and that I
> went when the Montecito campus was the only campus. And I am still following
> that lucky streak by being able to be so close to the school, its staff, and
> students.
>
> :-)
>
> Jim
>
>
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