Juliana Beasley and I leave for Mexico City in just over a week to co-teach an intensive photography workshop at an interdisciplinary creative think-tank, Toxico Cultura. The course, Truth or Dare: Establishing Connections with Your Subject, takes place from August 25th - 29th, and more information can be found on Toxico's blog. Many thanks to Toxico's Founder and Director, Gabriella Gomez-mont, a documentary filmmaker, writer, and luminary who made this happen.
A description of the workshop:
Two American photographers, Juliana Beasley and Tema Stauffer, will share their experiences with and ideas about forming intimacy with subjects. Juliana Beasley’s monograph, Lapdancer, which explores stripper culture through the perspective of an insider was published by powerHouse Books. In 2009, Beasley’s project, Last Stop: Rockaway Park, was awarded fellowships from The Aaron Siskind Foundation and The New Jersey State Council of the Arts. Her most recent series of portraits shot at a residency in Sete, France, was published in a second monograph. Tema Stauffer’s series of portraits of adolescents on Main Street in Binghamton, New York, The Ballad of Sad Young Men, was exhibited at Daniel Cooney Fine Art Gallery in 2009, and selections from her American Stills series were shown in Whatever Was Splendid, an exhibition exploring the legacy of Walker Evans on contemporary American photographers at Fotofest Biennial 2010 in Houston.
These two artists with different approaches to developing relationships with their subjects will help students find their own methods for photographing people. The course will address how photographers can use the camera as a vehicle to make a deeper connection to people both within and beyond their own social circles. Both artists will give lectures about their own work and will also examine relevant historical and contemporary photography through slide presentations and readings, including work by Diane Arbus, Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Richard Billingham, Katy Grannan, Rineke Dijkstra, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Donna Ferrato, and Jim Goldberg.
Students will complete a shooting assignment photographing subjects in private and public environments. Students can begin a new project or further develop an existing project. The course will also include a writing component asking students to make journal entries about their experiences photographing subjects, and this written content will be discussed in class. The course will conclude with an exploration of the editing process and critiques of students’ work.
Juliana and I will also co-teach an extended 10-week Personal Vision course at the ICP on Friday evenings beginning Friday October 6th. Please find more information listed in the ICP's Fall Programs Guide: Truth or Dare: Establishing Connects with Your Subjects
