{"id":4906,"date":"2012-10-09T16:36:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T16:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gator4118.temp.domains\/~artsance\/?p=4906"},"modified":"2022-01-27T17:23:07","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T17:23:07","slug":"asc-honors-cato-lifetime-achievement-in-teaching-award-byron-baldwin-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsandscience.org\/asc-honors-cato-lifetime-achievement-in-teaching-award-byron-baldwin-art\/","title":{"rendered":"ASC Honors, Cato Lifetime Achievement in Teaching Award: Byron Baldwin, Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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ASC Honors, Cato Lifetime Achievement in Teaching Award: Byron Baldwin, Art<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Teacher Byron Baldwin honored with the Cato Lifetime Achievement in Teaching Award.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Why this matters:<\/strong>\u00a0ASC recognizes that creative individuals and teachers enrich the cultural lives of everyone in our region and beyond through their work.<\/em><\/p>

By BEA QUIrk<\/strong><\/h5>

Is Byron Baldwin a photographer who teaches, or a teacher who does photography?<\/p>

Actually, when he started as a photography teacher at Myers Park high School in 1972, he was just looking for a job.<\/p>

After getting out of the Navy, Baldwin realized photography had more meaning for him than his degree in history. So he earned a graduate degree in photography at Ohio University. Upon graduating, he came to Charlotte looking for a job in commercial photography. It didn\u2019t pan out, so he went to MPHS when he heard they were looking for a photography teacher. He was hired on the spot.<\/p>

For the next 30 years, Baldwin taught more than a thousand students not only how to take pictures, but also how to use photography as \u201ca way to embrace themselves. I showed them that having a camera around their necks was a great way to discover the world \u2013 and themselves.<\/p>

\u201cMost people are lazy observers of the world,\u201d he adds. \u201cMy job was to make students aware of the visual delights that surround them every day.\u201d<\/p>

But while Baldwin\u2019s students were learning photography and how to use it as a mode for self-exploration, so was Baldwin. Every Friday, everyone \u2013 including himself \u2013 had to turn in a new work. During that Friday Photo Session, students took turns jurying each others\u2019 work \u2014 as well as Baldwin\u2019s. \u201cThey could be brutal,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI liked that, especially when they really trashed my work. It made me work harder the next week.\u201d<\/p>

Baldwin\u2019s influence has been felt well beyond MPHS: in 1973 he was one of the co-founders of Charlotte\u2019s The Light Factory, now a nationally-acclaimed photography center. Today, a decade after he retired from MPHS, he is still teaching \u2013 now at Central Piedmont Community College.<\/p>

\u201cTeaching is a lot like growing tomatoes,\u201d he observes. \u201cYou can prepare the soil, add a little fertilizer and water occasionally, but in the end, the tomatoes grow themselves.\u201d<\/p>

Baldwin\u2019s work has been exhibited widely and is included in such venues as the High Museum in Atlanta, the Library of Congress and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.<\/p>