By Paige Engelhardt
Once the most popular class on campus, the advanced photojournalism class is offered to undergraduate students wanting to explore the world through a lens.
'I wanted to get into journalism, and I thought photojournalism would be fun,' said Emily Bohe, a student in the advanced photojournalism class and a senior from Coatesville, Penn., majoring in English. 'It was fun to look at things in a different way, behind the camera.'
Before removed from Brigham Young University''s general education requirements, physics of light and composition, which emphasized journalistic photography, was one of the most popular courses on campus, said Alf Pratte, BYU historian and communications professor.
'Just about everybody took it,' Pratte said. 'I took it when I was a freshman here to get physics credit. It became one of the most popular general education courses. One time it had about 800 students.'
In 1977, physics of light and composition was no longer offered at BYU due to the extreme numbers of students signing up for the course.
'I guess it got too big and out of control,' Pratte said.
But as of this winter, a new advanced photojournalism course - open to all majors - was introduced to the communications department.
Unfortunately the advanced class, Communications 495R, has only a minimal enrollment, possibly due to the lack of student awareness.
'I don''t think it is something a lot of people know about,' Bohe said.
Finding the course online is another challenging issue for aspiring photojournalists and students interested in the course.
'You wouldn''t think that a photography class would be in the communications department,' said Emily Mars, a Communications 495R student and a junior from Kent, Ohio majoring in print journalism. 'The advanced (photo-journalism) class is hidden.'
Mars and Bohe believe that if the photojournalism classes were more publicized, more students would participate.
'I know there are lots of people who try to get into the photography major, but they can''t because it has a limited enrollment,' Mars said. 'I think lots of people would go for photojournalism as another option is case they didn''t make it in. They are not publicized enough.'