I started teaching photography in 1991 (11 years after graduating myself). After 26 years of teaching aspiring young photographers in both the UK and Australia I have decided to take a break from teaching full-time students (maybe temporary – maybe permanent). I started my teaching career at Spelthorne College just outside of London in the UK and was proud to be able to teach at RMIT BA Photography (the oldest photography program in the world) where I was promoted to Senior Lecturer and took on the role of Program Director for two years. The courses that I designed and taught over my career led to thirty published books with Focal Press, and these in turn were translated into many languages. I developed and taught the first photography courses offered online and the teaching both face-to-face and online inspired my own photography and photographic learning. To all the students I had the pleasure of teaching I thank you for your enthusiasm and commitment to photography. To all of my colleagues who were receptive to my enthusiasm for the new – I thank you for listening. I would especially like to thank John Child for his friendship and support during the period when photographic education at RMIT transitioned from analogue to digital. I would also like to thank my wife Dorothy for her advice and never-ending support and my children for tolerating their absent father during the many ‘book writing’ periods.
As an educator my path has not yet run its course – I am still committed to teaching photography and have a passion for sharing my skills and knowledge. This year I have arrived at a point in time where I now need to spend more time pursuing my own photographic projects and teaching outside the constraints of a college environment.
If you are interested in what I have to say about photography just head over to https://www.markgaler.com and click on Training or Talks.