This four-day workshop invites photographers to explore a unique and challenging intersection, one that is fundamental to the nature of photography- images that document the world from a personal perspective.
The hands-on workshop prepares photographers to approach the documentary field with an active eye, heart, and mind. There are daily discussions and reviews of work in progress in our base camp at Tujague's historic Creole restaurant (the second oldest restaurant in New Orleans), as well as shooting assignments designed to help participants hone their abilities to recognize and capture emotional content and create memorable images.
Famous for her remarkably poetic and insightful documentary portraits, Debbie Fleming Caffery shares her wealth of experience, techniques and unique personal approaches to the special relationship that exists between the photographer, the subject, and the world at large. Open to all levels, this four-day workshop prepares participants working in black and white or color photography to observe and respond to the poetic possibilities that are present in each moment.
Debbie also covers the practical aspects of the photographer's tool kit: camera systems, lenses, film selection and printing, as well as the possibilities posed by the final result, for instance, a book, an exhibition or a portfolio of images.
Famous for its friendly, eccentric and colorful characters, the French Quarter over its nearly 300-year history has inspired artists and writers from Edgar Degas and Walker Evans to William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and any number of others whose creativity was sparked by its diverse inhabitants.
Mime artists and street performers, exotic dancers and drag queens, blues singers and fortunetellers all contribute to the heady mix of a neighborhood known for its round-the-clock street life and make New Orleans an exceptional destination for documentary portraiture.
Participants are encouraged to research possible subjects prior to arrival and come ready to continue to research with an open mind upon their arrival.
A portfolio is required for admission.
Who should attend: This workshop is for committed photographers interested in expanding their documentary portraiture skills.
What should I bring?
Participants may use
either traditional black-and-white or color film, or digital capture.
Digital shooters should have laptops, supporting software and memory.
Bring 15 images from one project for the first day review. Prints are preferred but digital is ok.
Digital portfolio requirements are as follows:
• jpeg format
• CD or DVD only marked with your name
• Image size: 5Mb maximum each
Thank you for following these guidelines: they allow the reviews to run smoothly.
Level: Intermediate/advanced.
A work sample/portfolio is requested at time of registration. It doesn't need to be the same as the one for the first review.
Dates: October 21-24 2010 (Thursday-Sunday), 9am-5pm each day.
Enrollment: Up to 12 participants.
| Tuition: | $785 |
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Deposit: A $150 non-refundable deposit is due with the application. The balance is due in full on October 14th (one week prior to the start of the workshop). |
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Her sensitive use of light, shadow, texture, and composition shapes romantic portraits of field workers, men, women, children, and the elderly. Images such as Burning Pine Needles, with its ghostly worker representing both activity and absence, are documents that belong to the realm of photographic abstraction as much as to the tradition of photographic reportage.
Debbie Fleming Caffery received her BFA in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1975, and since then has received numerous fellowships and awards. Her work has been exhibited in one-person and group shows worldwide, and is included in the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In 1990 a monograph of her work entitled Carry Me Home: Photographs by Debbie Fleming Caffrey was published by Smithsonian Press. In 2002, she published The Shadows with Twin Palms Press and in 2009 The Spirit and the Flesh with Radius Books.
Underlying all the awards, books and blue chip museum collections is a creative process perhaps best described by a legendary filmmaker: “The true artist must always mix the inner substance of the soul with the essence of the subject to derive droplets of imagery from the resultant alchemy. This magical process requires the total involvement of the heart. Debbie Fleming Caffery’s work radiates this fusion of her personal passion with the emotional energy of her subjects. From this fundamental union comes the depth and power of her images.” - Francis Ford Coppola
