In the classroom, Peter Laytin demands the best of his students—in technique, skill and inquiry—in the hopes they learn not just what it takes to be a good photographer, but also something about themselves.
 For 30 years Laytin has led the photography program in Communications Media, starting with a one-year appointment in 1978, the first year the program held degree-granting status. This past spring he was honored with the Vincent J. Mara Award for Excellence in Teaching.
“I was thrilled. I know there are many other faculty members who are as deserving, so I feel fortunate to have been selected,” Laytin said. “I have dedicated my professional life to this institution and I’m proud of it.” The award holds a special meaning for Laytin. “Dr. Mara was very supportive of my career,” Laytin said. “He, or his wife Clare, attended every opening of my regional photography exhibitions during the years he was president. It was a remarkable, generous and meaningful gift and I will always think fondly of the Mara family.” Laytin is singularly unmistakable on the Fitchburg State campus. At 6-foot, 7-inches, his presence is unique, recognizable and, perhaps to those who don’t know him, easy to quantify. Yet Laytin’s biography is far more complex. Originally a pre-med student, and still an avowed math and science lover, Laytin found photography at the end of his junior year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He became transfixed in a 14-day workshop led by iconic black and white photographer Minor White, known for his Zen teaching methods and belief in the camera’s ability to capture the deep metaphors of life. Laytin went on to earn a master’s of arts and humanities in film, video and photography and then followed White, who had become his mentor, to MIT, where he landed his first professorial position. Laytin works in infrared film, arguably the most difficult film to use. (His first successful infrared photo from the 1970s is being published for the first time in Contact. See page 18). His works hang in collections worldwide and he has been widely recognized for his contributions to photography. In addition to Fitchburg students, Laytin has taught adults and artists in workshops and adult ed classes for years.  His book, Creative Camera Control, is in use in colleges around the country. Laytin is a reluctant interviewee, as if there is something mystical in his art and his teaching he wishes to keep unnamed. At first, he calls himself an educator, then photographer and artist. Then, simply, “both.” “I’ve been fortunate enough to have two careers that keep me energized,” Laytin said. “I love photography and I am totally nourished by teaching. I am still excited about coming to classes. I have been lucky to be able to live my life in an academic institution where I have colleagues who I can share ideas with, where I have students who desire what I can offer, and where I can in small ways have an impact.” It is a delicate balance between artistry and education, image and mystery, darkness and light that Laytin is constantly maintaining. It is the same balance he pushes his students towards. “You can have the most beautiful vision in the negative but if you don’t execute well it doesn’t work,” Laytin said. “Photography is a language, just as there is sign language and spoken word. It’s important that we are aware of images and how they alter our understanding of things and that they can be both truthful and deceptive.” In Laytin’s world of art—and in his classroom—where things are not always as they seem, perhaps his greatest lesson is that wisdom can be found in the searching for answers and meaning. Photo Gallery
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