Some may think of a photography professor being experienced, well-traveled or possessing a seemingly endless shelf of cameras. Bailey Russel, assistant academic professional lecturer teaching photography in the visual arts department, is all of these things and more.
Russel is a New Jersey native who did his undergraduate work at Princeton University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in art history and film studies. He then continued on to get his masters of photography from New York University.
“I didn’t teach before I came here. I was a working photographer, Russel said. “This is all pretty new to me.”
Russel came to UW during the 2011-2012 school year. He said becoming a teacher has been an enjoyable career shift.
“I like so many different aspects of photography that I really like being able to investigate lots of different things with my students, lots of different processes,” Russel said. “It’s pretty wonderful to have an excuse to basically learn something new and try to teach it and try to figure it out with my students.”
All of the photography classes in the visual arts department are taught by Russel, including classes on black and white photography, digital photography and more advanced photographic methods. He also teaches a first-year seminar on accessible photography.
“Basically the class is centered around the idea that you don’t need to buy a camera to do photography,” Russel said. “You can use different homemade things instead of cameras or as cameras to do photographic processes.”
David Jones of the visual arts department said that Russel’s classes have a positive impact on the entire department.
“I unequivocally think that he has had an impact on all of us in the department of art and art history,” Jones said. “His students love taking his classes and more than anything else, the results of his student work speaks for itself.”
Russel’s upper-level courses are designed to allow students to take the class multiple times without repeating material. To do this, Russel focuses on a different photographic process each semester.
“Last year it was book photography. The year before it was entirely alternative processes,” Russel said. “This year it’s the wet-plate collodion tin-types photography, which dates to the civil war era.”
Douglas Russell, associate professor of drawing, said that Russel’s enthusiasm and willingness to connect with students sets him apart.
“Bailey is engaging, curious, filled with good questions and answers both for students and other faculty,” Russell said.
In addition to teaching, Russel also has continued his own photography work.
“My own work includes large-scale cameras, similar to what I teach,” Russel said. “I have a trailer that I have turned into a camera, and I do large-scale black and white photography with that.”
When he is not busy creating works of art, Russel takes advantage of Wyoming’s many opportunities to enjoy nature with his wife, the fish biologist for the state of Wyoming in the UW ecology department, and his daughter, who is two years old.
“I went many years in New York City with never leaving the city except to take a train somewhere. I never did anything outdoorsy, went backpacking or hiking or anything like that,” Russel said. “It’s making up for lost time being able to come out here and do everything that I didn’t do when I was there.”
Photography is an art form that Russel said is unique for its ability to misrepresent reality.
“Everyone seems to trust photography implicitly, and yet I don’t think photography shows reality at all. It shows a version of it that people can shape,” Russel said. “There’s that weird disconnect where it implies the real world, but doesn’t really show the real world. I really enjoy that.”
Jones said, “the most important thing to know about Bailey is his willingness to help out anybody, that he is supportive of both his students and colleagues, and that he does not appear to ever have a bad day.”
