Local News: PSC wins again

The Photography Studies College (PSC) has further reinforced its place as Australia’s best after taking out the Australian Institute of Professional Photography’s (AIPP) tertiary institution award for a fifth straight year.

With two PSC students, Daniel Pockett and Vicki Moritz, finishing in the top three of the AIPP’s Student Photographer of the Year Award, the collective points aggregate was enough to see it claim the honour once again.

Of course after five years of being acknowledged as the best in the business, one can’t forget that the key reason for all of the success comes down to those teachers who continue to make it all possible.

PSC course director Daniel Boetker-Smith said it was both pleasing and important to be acknowledged for providing students with the most well rounded education available.

“Photography is this unique thing in that it’s a business but also it’s a personal creative practice and so a photography course has to do all of that and I think it’s really important for us to have that sort of acknowledgement from the AIPP,” he said.

“There’s pressure on us as well to maintain that, which is great because the feeling is if we don’t win it this year we have to ask ourselves what we’re doing wrong.”

“You just have to keep improving and keep pushing your students and say this is the standard that we’re setting and I think it also comes back to a lot of the teachers that are here have a lot of experience working professionally.”

While teaching generally specialises in commercial, photo-journalism and art photography, Daniel said the curriculum was constantly evolving with technology and industry standards to help students make the easiest transition into becoming independent creative practitioners.

“A lot of photography is about how do you get that work out there, how do you show it to people, how do you make a name for yourself, how do you make money and how do you make connections with people?”

“In every industry it’s about how do you talk about your work so our job is to make sure that those students are getting exposed to that variety of opportunities and to bring those staff in that can do that.”

As well as providing students with access to the best technology and studio space, PSC’s strong industry connections mean students are regularly exposed to a range of guest speakers from the industry, mentoring programs and work experience opportunities.

Fellow teacher and course co-ordinator Sarina Lirosi said it was important that students learned how to channel their creativity through both understanding and experiencing their industry.

“You want to encourage them to try all sorts of things and they find their voice as they move from second year into third year, and by then they have a vision and by third year that’s nurtured,” she said.

“In their final year they get assessed by external practitioners so they get something real because we get close to their work and what they’re exploring so its good to get someone in and give feedback in a completely unbiased way.”

Having now won the AIPP’s prestigious award five years in a row, PSC continues to attract those who not only wish to study photography but also those who wish to teach it.

With all PSC teachers possessing vast experience in the industry, Sarina said the awards were ultimately a reflection of the resounding passion that she and her colleagues held for their trade.

“All of us are passionate about what we do. We’re passionate about teaching and photography,” she said.

“All of us have a practice of having some sort of history in a career as a practising photographer or artist and we all bring our own passion to our teaching and we teach from experience.”