Feature (brooks)
founded by a man who saw the future through the lens of his camera produced roughly 10,000 graduates with degrees in photography, film, and graphic design before closing its doors earlier this year. Summing up the end of an era, alum Victor Zuidema (2013), says that “Brooks will be missed, but its spirit will live on through those of us who went there, and those after us whom we teach.” ●
“I always thought the best way to learn about the world is from the world itself. And the best
photographers were not necessarily those who knew the most about photography but
those who knew the most about everything else.” —Paul Liebhardt, Brooks professor
PHOTOGRAPH: OPPOSITE, COURTESY OF BROOKS INSTITUTE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
faculty-led students and graduates was responsible for visually documenting the legendary Shroud of Turin. Other students explored the headwaters of the Amazon River with fabled ocean explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Through the school’s International Photo-Documentary Project, professor/ photojournalist Paul Liebhardt took camera-laden students on extended three-month trips to remote locations (China, India, West Africa, Tibet, Myanmar, Vietnam). Small wonder that alum Mallory Morrison (2009) fondly remembers her stint at Brooks as “one of the best times of my life.” Brooks Sr. was at the helm of Brooks from 1945 to 1971, an amazing 26-year tenure during which Brooks went from a local trade school to an established institution of higher learning that attracted students from all over the world. Upon his retirement, he handed over the reins to an extremely talented Brooks graduate— his son Ernie. A world-renowned underwater photographer, Ernie’s background includes 17 years traveling with Jacques-Yves Cousteau, training the captain’s underwater photo team. (The introduction to Ernie’s 2003 elegant black-and-white monograph, Silver Seas, was penned by Cousteau’s son, Jean-Michel.) Ernie served as president of Brooks for 30 years, retiring in 1999. Still hard at work in his eighth decade, Ernie’s stunning underwater images continue to be widely exhibited. In the end, the local Santa Barbara school