A teacher, commercial photographer and all-around artist, Vaughn Wascovich is the latest addition to the school’s photography program, filling in the full-time professor position that has been open for little more than a year.
Wascovich has an energetic love for the arts, teaching, and all of life’s simple pleasures.
“I started taking photos when I was 13, and I love it more and more everyday,” Wascovich said. “My camera is a way to see the world differently; to broaden my view or get closer.”
Wascovich attended Columbia College in Chicago, where he received his Master of Fine Arts.
He also taught courses at Columbia, as well as the University of Missouri where he was the assistant professor of Photography.
“I had been teaching in Missouri for six years,” Wascovich said. “They offered me a job here so, I took it.”
University photographer, Craig Buck, was on the search committee that led Wascovich here.
Vaughn clearly demonstrates a passion for students and really cares about his students,” Buck said. “He cares not only about photo, but how he relates to life.”
Wascovich currently teaches color photography, beginning black and white, digital manipulation, and next semester, may instruct an alternative experimental photography class.
Photography major Evan Wallis is in Wascovich’s color photography class.
“Vaughn has a lot of enthusiasm,” Wallis said. “He wants to change the campus. He cares about the community. He holds your attention and gets you excited, and he wants to get you on your feet working.”
“I have a lot of energy and I love teaching students,” Wascovich said. “It sounds silly, but I do.”
On Wascovich’s Web site, wascovich.com, he explains his philosophy towards teaching.
“Good teaching is based on faith and trust. I can’t be a good teacher unless I believe in what I do, and unless I do what I teach,” Wascovich said. “My students have to have faith in my passion for my art, and the faith that they too will come to understand the joy and wonders of photography, how it can open doors for them; doors to new worlds, to new ways of seeing and thinking and understanding.”
Buck said, “I really appreciate his work. It’s a direct reflection of who he is as a person.”
Wascovich, is currently working on a series called “Bodies of Knowledge,” the primary focus being the landscape of campus and the Red River.
“I like to find out how we contain and control information, and how physical structures affect us,” Wascovich said. “With smaller schools, one person can really affect the area and make a change.”
For Wascovich, photography is an open-ended blessing and a curse because he must always try to keep up with the changes.
After years of working as a commercial photographer, Wascovich eventually began to shoot solely digital photographs.
“I gave up film four years ago and never looked back,” Wascovich said. “Digital provides the best opportunities for teaching. My latest camera I’ve had for 2 years, and have taken over 40,000 pictures, although I always work with digital on a tripod. I’m not random with my work. If there are accidents, they are controlled accidents.”
Though Wascovich continues to progress through his art, he hopes to find out where he is in a physical and metaphysical sense.
“Art is the most important thing we have, I think it’s more important than being a doctor, or a lawyer,” Wascovich said. “If I didn’t believe that, I’d be a doctor, or a lawyer.”
Wascovich seems to live and breathe art, exploration and teaching, but he also has a love for music, vintage bicycles and nosing around small towns.
“I like to listen to lots of classical and jazz,” Wascovich said. “I like to ride vintage bikes. I like vintage stereos, and good scotch.”
Not only have Wascovich’s enthusiastic teaching methods impressed students and faculty members on campus, but his lifelong quest for knowledge and love of bicycles has helped him dream up possible classes for the future.
“I think we should teach a class on bicycles!” Wascovich said. “You could learn all about bikes, the history of bikes, bike racing. Sociologists could come in and talk about different types of bike riding!”