DF Chido
Mexico City, 2004
My first teaching experience at the Centro de las Imágenes in Mexico City. I worked for a short week with eleven students from different levels. I already know Manuel who had already studied with me in Oaxaca and Cesar who had attended my first workshop in Cuba. The rest I had personally chosen over more that 22 applicants.
I gave them the task to concentrate on one specific subject for the duration of the course.
The first couple of days were the most difficult since each student had to tune in with their own reality. Some hardly shoot any film at first. I patiently encouraged them to devote more time to their subjects. In the mean time the spirit of the group was slowly brewing. The more we got to know one another the more the group understood what my teaching was all about. I accompanied some of them in their daily outing. By the end of the week, the students alone were commenting on each other work explaining with great details why certain image worked and most of them didn’t. When a good picture will show up on the TV monitor the whole group would say, almost cry: La foto està chida, slang for cool, interesting. DF Chido another group, another special experience of life and photography. EB
