Photographic Education on Line? This is Where It Started!

Here's a fun quality of Facebook. The image above was shared on Royce Chenore's page over a year ago. Recently somebody commented and the thread became active again, coming up on my page this morning.

Royce originally wrote:

This is Circa 1995... it was a publicity photo for the "PORTRAIT 2000" teleconference.... this was in the VERY early days of "electric imaging" now called digital retouch... the photographers submitted "selfies" on FILM of all formats brands and speeds....(selfie...another term that didn't exist) and ACI composited them into one image.... this was EXTREMELY INNOVATIVE AT THE TIME!! Feel free to share and tag others if you wish....

Well, I picked up the phone and called an old friend who I hadn't talk to in a lot of years, Ed Pierce, (front row, second from the end.)  What a kick it was to talk him about this event. Here's what so many of you don't know.

• ​This event actually led to the launch of PhotoVision, which many of you subscribed to over the years.
• There were four events in the series with the smallest being 58 viewing locations and the largest at 80+.
• While some of the locations were in theaters, over half were in hotel ballrooms with satellite trucks. Just the logistics alone, which included a few snow storms, was an incredible accomplishment.
• Ritz Camera had the studio for the production, but Ed Pierce had to help them rig it for the event.
• Each speaker was interviewed live during the event and then there was a 25-30 minute video of them working/teaching, and then back to the speaker live again.
• There was a full panel of operators standing by to field phone-in questions for the speakers - much like a telethon.
• The program was eight hours of live content for each event.

Now, take a minute and think about online education today. This is where it all started! There was no Creative Live or Lynda.com or for that matter ANY online programming. There were no webinars, even YouTube wouldn't be founded for almost another ten years!

But this is also another example of a fun aspect about Throwback Thursday. While in one respect I can't believe how old I am to have been around for this stuff - on the other hand, I couldn't be more proud to have been a very small part of it. Hasselblad was one of the sponsors and Tony Corbell, and I flew to Washington D.C. and were in the audience all day at the live event.

It's hard to imagine a more fun trip down Memory Lane when it comes to photography. To Royce for sharing over a year ago - thank you! And, to my old buddy Ed Pierce, who answered the phone just a few minutes ago, it really is time for you to write a book. You're the one who blazed this trail into video education and helped change so many lives in photography!

Happy Throwback Thursday everybody!