To download a printable enrollment for Photographing People, click here.

This course is designed to help photographers enhance their skills of photographing people at home, in the studio, or out on the street. You will learn how to make compelling portraits in any kind of situation, dealing with subjects of all shapes, sizes, occupations, and personalities. You will learn lighting techniques that are creative, simple, and best of all---portable. Effective ways on how to deal with AND direct your subject will be discussed weekly, as will the best ways to approach and make photographs of total strangers in a wide variety of locations and lighting conditions. Class discussions will include looking at the work of some of today's most successful Fine Art, Editorial, and Photojournalistic "people" photographers. You may work in color or black & white.

This course brings students onto the streets of Boston to capture the pulse of this exciting city. Discussions will cover both the history and practice of street photography and will focus on such topics as approaching strangers, candid, unobtrusive and confrontational shooting techniques, subjective vs. objective imagery, controlling light and exposure on the street and telling the story you observe or choose to create from your surroundings. Assignments will include candid shooting, street portraiture and urban landscapes and will focus on anticipating the moment, developing a sensitivity to lighting conditions and framing the shot. Street Photography is open to both digital and film photographers.

To download a printable enrollment for The Documentary Project, click here.

As documentarians, we are in the “point of view” business. How do we tell our stories with integrity, clarity and honesty? Where does personal vision come from and how do you tell a story with your unique point of view? What makes a story valid or worthy? What are the practical considerations and how do we keep a long-term project on track? This is a workshop about telling a story with pictures and having it bear your unique vision. We will explore personal style and vision, the elements of editing, the concept of process and how to solve the basic picture problem. Audio will also be explored.

The goal of this workshop is to develop skills needed to become an effective photo documentarian. The course will generate complex questions for the serious photographer and provide a framework to fulfill future projects. Each photographer will select a project that he/she will photograph throughout the workshop. Weekly critique of the ongoing work is at the heart of this workshop.

To download a printable enrollment for Documentary II, click here.

Designed for intermediate and advanced photographers, Extended Projects continues the work begun in the Documentary Project workshop.  In this course, we mirror and deepen the development of personal vision and the development of a visual voice.  This is a workshop about telling a story with pictures and having it bear your unique vision. The course will continue to generate complex questions for the serious photographer and provide a framework to fulfill future projects. Each photographer will either continue a pre-existing project or select one that they will photograph throughout the workshop.  Weekly critique of the ongoing work is at the heart of this workshop.

Prerequisite: The Documentary Project

The landscape has been a subject for artists of all types since art has existed. How an individual relates with their surroundings is both personal and universal. Using the camera, we take time to record what we find pleasing or interesting in the world for others to see. Everyone makes landscape photographs when they go on vacation. What separates the good from the great, the great from the transcendent? This class will provide a platform to study the genre of landscape photography and discover new approaches for personal expression. Students are required to bring in images (analog or digital) for group discussion each week. Through weekly slide lectures, analyzing examples, and studying the history of the genre, students will gain a greater understanding of landscape photography and develop and expand their personal style of image-making.

Explore the creative possibilities of the non-conventional camera, from the plastic “toy” Holga to the homemade pinhole. Get back to the basics of film photography, utilizing simplified photographic tools which will allow you to arrive at a poetic and sensitive handling of light as a key element of composition. Discover how a “lack of control” process can result in a sophisticated image.

Required Equipment: Students are required to purchase a HOLGA camera for this course.

Photographs with the power to astonish can be found anywhere. What is required is a skilled photographer who is visually aware and ready to capture the fleeting moment. This workshop is designed to open up the photographer to the photographic moment in the everyday, offer guidance in equipping oneself for it and provide invaluable critique of work created throughout this course. Being open to what the moment has to offer photographically requires a delicate balance of social engagement and visual awareness and preparedness. This workshop will offer an ongoing dialogue concerning social responsibility and artistic creation.