For students in Andrew Mendelson’s classes, photography is about more than pointing a camera at something and snapping a picture. Under Mendelson’s guidance, students learn that photos are windows into the psyche of society — tools to be used to influence, understand, and move viewers.

“You can learn everything about a culture from photography,” said Mendelson, who is chair of the journalism department.

“Photos both reflect and refract who we are,” he said. “They let us look at issues many of us don’t engage in directly — like gender, crime, race and warfare — and show us who are our heroes and villains. Photography is ubiquitous; it’s just there and we don’t even notice it much of the time. But it’s much more unavoidable than verbal communication, which can be tuned out.”

Mendelson’s passion for his subject comes through in his teaching style, which has earned him the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.

In hundreds of student evaluations from Mendelson’s 10 years at Temple, students have used words like “inclusive,” “interactive,” “engaging” and “interesting” to describe his classes.

“I try to mix things up,” Mendelson said of his teaching style. “For each lecture, I try to think what the best way is for students to learn each topic.”

Sometimes “the best way” means showing a daguerreotype print of the original photographic process, sometimes it means showing a Britney Spears clip.

“I try to be relevant and current,” Mendelson said.

In the classroom, Mendelson facilitates in-depth discussion and interaction among his students, combining lecture with visual media and group discussion to help students understand what a photograph is trying to tell its audience and how it reflects the time and place in which it was taken.

“I want my students to be able to look critically at what messages images are trying to get across,” said Mendelson. “The way a story is told is as important as what the story is.”

Outside the classroom, Mendelson is always available to advise his students — even after they have left his classes. Former students heartily praise his willingness to make time to meet and to offer advice or critiques of their work.

“They may or may not want to hear my feedback,” he joked, adding more seriously: “I love working with grad students. I try to engage them on an equal footing. I want them to be working their own way.”

Many students say that what they appreciate most about Mendelson’s style is that he treats them as colleagues, rather than students.

“Dr. Mendelson’s attention to my work after the class was over demonstrates to me his dedication to the academic field, where teaching is not only about content, but about building a community,” said Byron Lee, a former student of Mendelson’s.

Even as Mendelson helps support and direct student research, he also makes room for students in his own research, which has covered how the news media uses photos and emotional response to photos and advertising, among many other subjects.

“Many of my projects flow from student discussion, whether they know it or not,” he said. “There’s a cyclical nature of class informing my research.”

Ideas are exchanged freely in Mendelson’s classes, and that free-form environment is part of what drew him to teaching in the first place.

“I’m a classic nerd,” he said. “I love learning for learning’s sake.”

-- Elizabeth DiPardo