Dan Leers is the type of person that every liberal arts school wants to use as an example. In his time at Lawrence, he went from having no idea what he wanted to do with his future to having a strong idea of where he wanted to go (which still was not where he ended up) but through all of that, the diversity of knowledge that he picked up while studying here was invaluable. When he finally made his way into the New York art scene, he would not have been nearly as prepared to understand the many layers of meaning within the art that he interacted with without the liberal arts education. It was interesting and encouraging to hear him talk about the unpredictable nature of living life after college. He made it clear that no matter how many times you think you know where you're going to end up, you are probably still in for a surprise.
Beyond his own life story, it was interesting to hear Dan talk about various aspects of photography in different geographical areas and in different time periods. In particular, it was interesting to hear about photography in West Africa, where he went to study photography. It was fascinating to see how the subjects of the photographs emulated many fashions and styles that we are familiar with, but still revealed their true heritage through the photographs.
As a whole, the talk was an enlightening story of an individual who figured out his life (at least up until this point) and learned myriad interesting things along the way.
Dan Leers is definitely a perfect example of "the Lawrence Difference" and the experimentation and flexibility allowed in a liberal arts type learning environment. It was neat to see that eventually he did end up somewhere he really wanted to be, even after struggling and trying to feel out exactly what his place in the world should be. The variety of photos he discussed and saw was pretty cool, especially the West African art, and it really makes you see how prevalent photography is in all cultures.
ReplyDeleteKevin, you seemed to have gotten the same gist of the lecture as I did. Dan Leers is certainly an ideal model to exhibit the importance of a Liberal Arts education, for anyone who wants to build a great future. Even those who intend to think they know exactly what they want to do post-graduation, are not always following the right path. It never hurts to explore different fields of education, even if it is for the sake of experience. I also thoroughly appreciated how Dan Leers encouraged us towards the end, to take advantage of Lawrence University. He convinced us to interact with professors and gain an opportunity, just as he did, to travel around and perceive the world through a different perspective.
ReplyDeleteI'm not convinced Dan Leers provided any interesting perspective about graduating from a liberal arts school. I found his travels to western Africa a glorified study abroad program, but i will admit it would be awesome to get that opportunity, however nothing to give a lecture about. I just wish he had given more info about what he knows/gets paid for.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the timeline Dan compiled and included in the Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century catalog. Dan was one of the most cynical and sometimes resistant students we ever worked with and still he managed to demonstrate the positive side of a liberal arts education in less than 10 years!??!?!
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