my last 2008 workshop ramble

above images by David Hilliard

cpw's 2008 summer workshops are over! i cannot believe how fast it flew by. what a wild ride it has been. every weekend for the last 4 1/2 months we have been hosting different photography-related workshops in every topic imaginable instructed by a slew of amazing and talented artists. i am very lucky to have helped organize the 2008 schedule and to have managed it as well. often times i am in awe of my own job. on my blog i have had a fun time posting these "rambles" about many of the workshops to share with you a bit of my experiences.

David Hilliard was in town this past weekend to teach "The Environmental Portrait". I was so excited to meet David and to observe him teach. I have been a fan of his work for a while and was interested in hearing him discuss it and curious how he would encourage his students to create their own expressive environmental portraits. And I have to say that everything about the workshop exceeded my expectations. Aside from David being one of the more generous and giving instructors I have ever worked with, the students in the class were so insightful, intelligent and had beautiful work to share.

image by David Hilliard

So the first day we started off with portfolio reviews. great discussions about portraiture emerged through this. We got through about half the class and then went on to a location to photograph models. We went to a converted mill from the late 1600's and got to work with 5 models (ages 8-22). David spent some time scoping out the location and then set up his camera in a corner in the basement. There he demonstrated how his image making process works. Students looked on as he produced a beautiful and surprising image. Students went on to work with the models and make their own work. I have included two below, though there were many more.

image made during workshop by participant Gene Fischer

image made during workshop by participant Karen Andrews

David gave a lecture that evening- which gave an nice overview of how this work emerged for him in grad school and where it is now. He gave us a nice mix of his personal story, how he sees his work in relation to other photography and a technical overview. I enjoyed it.

Sunday we continued with portfolio reviews and looked at work made on Saturday at the mill. He closed the class with a discussion about other photographers using environmental portraiture. Some great artists included in that talk, who I will highlight at another time.

It was mostly exciting to watch David draw out so much creative energy from his students and for them to run with it. This weekend was the perfect example of why we work so hard at CPW to make these workshops happen- to give people an opportunity to explore, to be challenged and to find their unique voice through photography.

For more David Hilliard check out here. For CPW go here.
Keep an eye out for the 2009 workshop schedule.