I’m very excited to be announcing my Italy Photography Workshops for June 2010!
We’ve finalized the preparations for not one but TWO workshop experiences.
We’ll start out with a shorter 3-day/4-night workshop in Roma – “Your Story of Rome.” Then, right after that, we’ll move on to Pienza in Tuscany for a week-long workshop, “In Search of the Personal – Photographing Southern Tuscany.”
You can elect to have the combination of urban and rural experiences of both workshops or choose one or the other.
Tuesday, June 1 to Saturday, June 5, 2010
Rome is a city with a story, or rather with millennia of stories, and through photography, we will concentrate on learning to tell a story of Rome – your story of Rome – with images.
It’s a city that sees hundreds of thousands of tourists a year who make millions of photographs of some of the most famous sites in the world. The grand and amazing fountains, the Baroque churches, the riotous markets, the bridges over the Tiber, the beautiful Roman people… everything falls under the stare of the camera.
Our goal is to figure out how to make our own images and how to take those images and create a story that gives us our own sense of what it is that Rome means to each of us.
In the field, we’ll spend time trying to find unique ways of seeing iconic sights as 
well as finding subject matter that is well off the beaten track. Back at the hotel, we will edit your take, working on shot selection, sequence and series to help you tell your own story of Rome. We will work with digital photographic equipment for its remarkable speed of feedback and response, combining daily photographic experiences with real-time editing and critiquing of images.
Before we depart Rome, you will have produced a group of your own images designed to tell a story that is yours and yours alone; your response to one of the greatest cities in the world.
We’ll be based in the centro storico, the historical center. Our accommodations at the Albergo Cesári are ideally located between the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain; it’s a “walk to” location for so many sites (including Giolitti, one of Rome’s premier gelaterie) you’ll want to photograph. The hotel also has a great rooftop terrace where you can relax in the evening.
Because we will work with digital photographic equipment, we’ll be counting on its rapid feedback and we will be able to critique our images individually and via digital projection as a group. I will work with you as you edit your downloaded images to help you develop your story. Because the group will be shooting together and editing together, you will learn a lot from your fellow students as well.
I have limited this experience to a maximum of 12 photographers in order to ensure the best level of personal instructional attention. This is an intermediate-level photographic experience; you should have at least three years experience making photographs, have a basic understanding of photographic processes and technology and should be comfortable using a digital SLR camera in manual mode. Non-photographer companions are welcome and warmly invited to attend.
How do photographers develop a personal style? When – and how – can a photographer begin to establish a direction in his or her work? Perhaps most importantly, what makes a photograph become a “personal” statement?
We will work though a variety of strategies to help us tap into that creative part of our photographic selves. Through lots of image making, a blend of formal and field instruction and plenty of time for discussion and critique, we will work to uncover themes and lines of vision that may not have been previously evident to you.
And we’ll do it in Tuscany!
There are few places on earth like Tuscany. Its landscape is the landscape painted by the great artists of the Renaissance. Its architecture is known for its sense of proportion, beauty and attention to minute detail. Its people are distinctive, friendly and resilient. Its food presents simple flavors with extraordinary precision and grace. Its light is soft, enveloping and revealing. This experience will allow you to experience Tuscany’s remarkable culture, people, landscape and hill towns and work towards a personal photographic response to the Tuscan sense of place. I will push you to go beyond the picturesque and help you discover your own response to the texture, rhythm and spirit of Tuscany.
We will divide our photographic time between rural and urban locations and everything in between. There will be big towns that hustle and bustle and villages so small that fewer than two dozen people reside there and time has stood still. We’ll photograph churches set in remote landscapes and cathedrals perched on the highest point of the hilltop towns. Twisting roads lined with cypress, endless fields dotted with the colors of spring wildflowers and gems of architecture will spread out before our cameras. You will meet – and photograph – Tuscan artisans who make wine, cheese and olive oil. You will learn about Tuscan art, culture and history. Some mornings, we’ll be up early to catch morning light; some evenings, dinner will wait while we catch the last rays of the sun. Our driver will get us to the right places at the right time for the right light.
Because we will work with digital photographic equipment, we’ll be counting on its rapid feedback and we will be able to critique our images individually and via digital projection as a group. I will work with you as you edit your downloaded images to help you find your own personal sense of the places we’ll explore. Because the group will be shooting together and editing together, you will learn a lot from your fellow students as well.
I have limited this experience to a maximum of 12 photographers in order to ensure the best level of personal instructional attention. This is an intermediate-level photographic experience; you should have at least three years experience making photographs, have a basic understanding of photographic processes and technology and should be comfortable using a digital SLR camera in manual mode. Non-photographer companions are welcome and warmly invited to attend.