Maine Media Workshops 2014 Review

Two weeks ago I once again made the trip to Rockport, ME to my favorite workshop of the year: The Human Form at the Maine Media Workshops!  I love everything about this workshop: the gorgeous landscape of Rockport at the end of summer, the folks I've worked with for so many years at MMW, and of course the wonderful students...

Maine:

Maine is SO beautiful this time of year.  The weather is always perfect, a glorious escape from the typical humidity of mid-summer Baltimore.  And of course, the lobster is DELICIOUS.  Every day, Jill Enfield and I would race to Graffam Bros Seafood Shack for our daily (yes, daily) lobster roll.  We also hit the usual bar for our annual karaoke night, a tradition I've had with my MMW class for several years now.... and totally bombed.  While it was of course it was a total (and somewhat embarrassing) blast, I would like to offer a sincere public apology for our rendition of Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz".

Maine Media Workshops:

I always feel so welcomed by the hospitality of the workshops here.  The programs are fantastic, and I'm always thrilled to see colleagues and old friends that are teaching other courses during my stay.  [Bring up Jill Enfield, others?]  The faculty, staff, and even the models for our class at MMW have become like family.  This year, Eleanore Kohorn was an excellent side kick to have in the classroom and on shooting assignments as my T.A. She was also gracious enough to send me some of her favorite quotes from the week, such as this gem:  "Go back to something comfortable and then go in and fuck it up".  Maybe a title for a book on the creative process??

Trying to look like very serious photographers here.

Students:

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am consistently astounded by the work the students produce at this workshop every year, and this year was no different...

My class this year consisted of 5 extremely gifted and motivated photographers.  The small size of our group meant that we could really spend a lot of time diving into each students work and exploring how to [push to the next level].  Our classroom discussions got off to a very lively and open start, examining various challenges in photographing the nude, fears of making "inappropriate" images, approaching the nude from an intuitive standpoint, and other complicated ideas regarding the nude as subject matter.  We talked about the notion of process over product- that we're not going after an image; we're exploring.  And that if you believe that, there will always be a next step.

I was really impressed with how quickly this group of students grasped the idea that intuition cannot be controlled, and how to work with an intuitive approach in photographing the nude.  They seemed to pick up on things very quickly, discovering new ways to look at the human body.  Every student really pushed themselves to new levels of seeing, which was reflected in the work they produced throughout the week.

Lucas James:

Brooke Hedge:

Charlie Lemay:

Christian Domecq:

Jerri Hurd

Eleanore Kohorn:

Every year I encourage my students to look at the body for what it is, beyond the "concept" of the body, and to see it as line and form.  Shooting B&W seems to really help see the body as graphic elements, and it was fascinating to me to see so much of the students work gravitate towards B&W as opposed to color. 

THANK YOU!!

As always, a huge thanks to the folks at MMW for all of the support and hard work!!  This year was another wonderful experience and I can't wait to see what 2015 will bring :)  

And of course, a very special thank you to my students this year- Brooke, Charlie, Christian, Jerri, Lucas, and my super T.A. Eleanore Kohorn!  I loved working with you all and am thrilled to be able to share the excellent work you did here on the blog- please stay in touch, I would love to see more of your work in the future!

Photographing the Nude

 The body has been a source for artistic inspiration for centuries  - from the Venus de Willendorf- a small statue estimated to be over 20,000 years old, to the Greek and Roman period of idealizing the body, Michelangelo’s David, Edward Weston’s famous nudes, Robert Mapplethorpe’s explicitly erotic nudes and the late 20th century views of sexualized images influenced by Madison Ave, Hollywood and Playboy sensibilities.  There are so many images of nudes, and so many idealized representations of nudes, that our subconscious is full to the brim with assumptions about how the body looks.  With all of these preconceptions as to what a nude should look like, what is beautiful, what is appropriate, offensive, etc, it can be challenging to see the human form for what it is and approach it creatively.

Often times, there is some level of satisfaction in making an image that we “know” is good either because we have seen it before in books, magazines (Playboy for stylized nudes,) museums (we assume that images in print or formal exhibitions are automatically accepted) or it fits a social definition of what a good picture should look like.  We might be responding to a compositional principle, some lighting style, or a specific element of perspective that we have seen previously.  There are “how-to” books on photographing the nude that read like instruction manuals - where to position the lights, how to pose the model and where to set up the tripod.  These books will certainly show you how to make a typical mage of a nude, but they won’t lead you to creating new and powerful work through your own exploration.

The nude has been used as a vehicle for expressing the most profound emotions – love, sorrow, anger, ecstasy, sex. It is a powerful subject that can force us to confront ourselves and how we see the body; our reactions, our discomfort, or our attraction.  It has the potential to push us to witness the depth of our own humanity, provided we have the courage to look and the capability to see past our initial judgements, preconceptions, and visual assumptions.

My favorite workshop of the year, The Human Form at the Maine Media Workshops, is just around the corner and addresses these issues in approaching the body as a subject.  Every year, I have a variety of students - passionate amateurs, photography professors, and experienced commercial photographers- who are all looking for a fresh set of eyes.  In all cases, everyone is eager to not simply learn how to photograph the body, but how to see it in a new way and be truly original with this most popular subject.

It blows my mind that I am consistently astounded by the work the students produce at the Maine Media Workshops, that year after year I see new and exciting images of the body, and I can't wait to see what 2014 has to offer...

Click Here to check out the 2013 class and student work!

The Human Form runs from August 17 - August 23, at The Maine Media Workshops, 

70 Camden St, Rockport ME 04856

There's still time to register- click here for course and registration info! 

Oklahoma Arts Institute Workshops 2014

In 2011, I had the honor of teaching a workshop at the Oklahoma Arts Institute, a rigorous two week arts program for high school age students focusing on acting, creative writing, ballet, modern dance, orchestra, chorus, drawing and painting, photography, and film and video.  The workshops take place at the beautiful Quartz Mountain Arts and Conference Center, a resort located in the Wichita Mountains of southwestern Oklahoma.  I recently returned from teaching another summer session there, and once again had a fabulous time working with amazingly gifted young students.

Team Photo

We're baaaaaaack! Team Photo was reunited as I joined up once again with Konrad Eek and Ben Long. Since meeting and working together for the first time back in 2011, we've kept up correspondence but rarely have the chance to see each other in person, so this was a great opportunity to reconnect. Ben was outnumbered by three "Con's" this year as we were joined by newcomer Connor Choate (far right) joining in the fun.

The Lecture

During the first week, I presented my work with a slide show and lecture and loved the audience. Everyone was not only intrigued and receptive to my work, but they were warm and appreciative. This was one of those very special occasions when I am totally relaxed and feel like I am having a conversation with the audience.

The Students

were FANTASTIC. They were a brilliant class that were incredibly fun to teach and very eager to learn. They were all sweet, fun, and extremely enthusiastic. The two week workshop is intense, demanding a lot of hard work in a short period of time, and yet we still managed to have a blast through it all.

Student Work

I could not be more thrilled with the work the students produced in the short two week time we had together. I was, and still am, blown away by the caliber and quality of the images photographed by such a young group of photographers. The level on which the students were seeing went above and beyond my expectations, and they created some truly breathtaking and inspiring work. There was so much more than what I'm sharing here and it was difficult narrowing it down to these, but here are some images that really stood out:

Ben Davis

Charity Jack

Hayley Russell

Iasiah Pickens

Jacob Rabon IV

Carter Link

Jackson Fall

John Voth

Sarah Allen

Kayla Andrus

Kelsie Box

Kitkat Stotler

Landon Bahr

Lauren Tedford

Lucky Coffey

Carsyn Abrams

Molly Shanahan

Olivia Prichard

One thing that really impressed me was how quickly the students could let go of their "old" ways of seeing things and jump into a new approach. With so many of the workshops that I teach, the emphasis is on working intuitively, using photography to explore and discover new ways of looking. Just as it is with any creative process, it is so easy to fall into formulaic ways of seeing, photographing in ways we know will produce results which may be nice, but rarely exciting. The students at OSAI came into this workshop clearly knowing their way around a camera, and had already learned how to make images. What they learned through this workshop was the distinction between photographing based on the subject/event vs. photographing based on seeing/vision. They managed to let go of preconceived ideas of what works in an image, how you're "supposed" to photograph certain subject matter, and instead photograph with a much more #dynamic approach. *wink*

After two weeks of challenging exercises, the final assignment was open - they could photograph whatever subject matter they chose - and one student griped that they no longer knew how to photograph their friends now that they had become so aware of working with edges, shapes, line and light. They could no longer settle for casual snapshots of their friends. It was a comment that signaled to me that they truly "got it".

The Closing Show

Every year, the workshop ends with a show exhibiting the best of the work from throughout the course of the workshop. The show this year was exceptional, and truly displayed how far the students had come in such a short period of time. The images looked excellent and all of us could not be happier with everyone's progress.


THANK YOU ALL for being so wonderful, so enthusiastic and so receptive, and for the incredible work you did! I am extremely proud of this group and excited to see where they go next...

Thanks, as always, to Team Photo - Konrad Eek, Ben Long, and Connor Choate! I will miss you guys, and until we teach again, be in touch!!

And of course, thank you once again to the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute for hosting such a great program and inviting me to be a part of it! It is always a pleasure and I am already eager for the next opportunity to be back in Oklahoma! 

JRB Art At The Elms

From June 6 - June 28th, my work will be on exhibit at the JRB Art At The Elms gallery in Oklahoma City!

There will be an opening reception on June 6th, from 6pm - 10pm

- AND -

I will be there for a book signing and presentation on Thursday, June 12th, from 6pm - 10pm.  Hope to see you there!

For more information, check the JRB Art At The Elms website here   

The exhibit coincides with another workshop I'll be teaching at The Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute (OSAI), details of which will be posted later here on the blog.  I had a great time there last summer, and am looking forward to the exhibit at JRB and another sunny visit to The Sooner State!