In 2006, Charles H. Traub, chair of the graduate MFA program in photography at the School of Visual Arts and former director of New York’s renowned Light Gallery, collected some of the most compelling writing on photography in The Education of a Photographer — a fantastic anthology, co-authored by living legend Steven Heller, exploring what it means to become a contemporary photographer through remarkable essays from leading designers, editors, and gallery owners.

One of my favorite parts of the book is a list of maxims, The Do’s and Don’ts of Graduate Studies: Maxims from the Chair, outlining the art and science of photography with prescriptive pragmatism, conceptual insight and a healthy dose of stern humor.

The Do’s

• Do something old in a new way
• Do something new in an old way
• Do something new in a new way, Whatever works… works
• Do it sharp, if you can’t, call it art
• Do it in the computer — if it can be done there
• Do fifty of them — you will definitely get a show
• Do it big, if you cant do it big, do it red
• If all else fails turn it upside down, if it looks good it might work
• Do Bend your knees
• If you don’t know what to do, look up or down — but continue looking
• Do celebrities — if you do a lot of them, you’ll get a book
• Connect with others — network
• Edit it yourself
• Design it yourself
• Publish it yourself
• Edit, When in doubt shoot more
• Edit again
• Read Darwin, Marx, Joyce, Freud, Einstein, Benjamin, McLuhan, and Barth
• See Citizen Kane ten times
• Look at everything — stare
• Construct your images from the edge inward
• If it’s the “real world,” do it in color
• If it can be done digitally — do it
• Be self centered, self involved, and generally entitled and always pushing — and damned to hell for doing it
• Break all rules, except the chairman’s

The Don’ts

• Don’t do it about yourself — or your friend — or your family
• Don’t dare photograph yourself nude
• Don’t look at old family albums
• Don’t hand color it
• Don’t write on it
• Don’t use alternative process — if it ain’t straight do it in the computer
• Don’t gild the lily — AKA less is more
• Don’t go to video when you don’t know what else to do
• Don’t photograph indigent people, particularly in foreign lands
• Don’t whine, just produce

My favorite has to be “Read Darwin, Marx, Joyce, Freud, Einstein, Benjamin, McLuhan, and Barth,” affirming my belief in the importance of cross-disciplinary curiosity in informing, inspiring and enriching the creative process.

The entire book is an absolute treasure and I couldn’t recommend it more.