Rarely do I see a workshop I’d like to go on

Usually I get put off by these things

1. Price
2. Vague teaching methodology
3. A photographer who is not a teacher looking to cash in
4. Too many students

None of those things can be said about the following workshop.

(Please note duckrabbit has not been asked to post this. I saw the workshop on James Estrin and Maggie Steber’s Facebook pages and it caught my imagination.)

 

JEFF JACOBSON PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

 

FotoVisura Presents

JEFF JACOBSON PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP IN THE CATSKILLS
August 1-7 2011 & August 22-28, 2011
Mount Tremper in the Catskills, New York

To signup, contact: info@fotovisura.com

 

During the month of August 2011, Jeff Jacobson is offering two one-week workshops at his home in the Catskills. Registration will be limited to a maximum of five students per Workshop. The intimacy of a small group will allow students to fully explore each of their photographic limits and receive a great deal of personal attention from Jeff.

The workshops will be held during the weeks of August 1-7, and August 22-28. Students may choose to attend one of the two dates.

 

The Catskills

Jeff Jacobson lives on a rushing river in the hamlet of Mt Tremper, at the base of Tremper Mountain next door to the Zen Mountain Monastery.

 

The Workshop

The one-week workshop will be run on the basis of Jeff’s Where Do You Stand workshop, which he has been teaching at the International Center for Photography for over 20 years. During the workshop, every photographer must answer the following two questions posed by the great Welsh photographer, David Hurn; where do you stand and when do you press the shutter? Of the two questions, the matter of where you stand is far more complex.

There are the physical aspects, do you stand close or far away, raise the camera to your eye or shoot from the hip, stand up or sink to your knees? How do you know when to move, where to move to, and how to move so as not to disturb the scene you are photographing? This issue of movement is one of the most important and under examined questions photographers face.

In addition, there are deeper emotional, psychological and political questions about where you stand in relation to photography, and where does your photography stand in relation to the rest of your life. Where do you stand creatively and economically with your work, how do you make a livingand what do you shoot for yourself? How has digital technology affected you? If you’re a working photographer, how do you feel about your clients? How are your photographs used, whose interests do they serve? The goal is to help students integrate their photography into their lives so that both are enriched.

We will explore all these questions by photographing daily assignments, editing, portfolio reviews, and freewheeling discussions. The shooting assignments will not be subject matter oriented but will rather be structured to help the student learn where they are standing and where, how and when they need to move. Jeff will also talk extensively about the challenges of making a living from photography and the ways your economic choices affect both your choice of subject matter and the way you edit.

 

The Program and Schedule

Students will arrive in Mt Tremper on Sunday and we will meet that evening for a meal together with Jeff Jacobson.

Each workshop day will begin in the morning with editing of the previous day’s shooting. Students will edit their own work. Jeff will then re-edit the pictures so the student can see which photographs they are missing in their editing process. Discussion will ensue about the important process of editing, and why and how photographers miss their own best pictures when editing. These sessions will last into the early afternoon, with a break for lunch. Because of the small number of students, every member of the workshop will have enough time to work through problems in these sessions. One on one sessions with Jeff will also be available. In mid-afternoon, students will head out to shoot during the best light of the day. Some evenings we will reconvene for a meal at La Duchesse Anne, but students will be free to shoot as late as they want most days.

Some evenings, there may be special guest lecturers from the extensive photography community in the area or from Jeff’s extensive network of friends. The last day of the workshop will be devoted to putting together the entire week’s work and extensive discussions about any issues that have come up during the week for each student.

Students will have a wide variety of subject matter to choose from. The natural beauty of the Catskills and Hudson Valley is unsurpassed for landscape photography. For those seeking a grittier urban scene, the nearby towns of Kingston, Hudson, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh offer plenty of opportunities. There are major county fairs happening both weeks along with local festivals.

Students depart the following Sunday, August 7th or the 28th, respectively.

 

The Fee

The fee for the workshop is $1,200.00.  Lodging and some meals are extra.  Lunches, snacks and drinks will be provided at the workshop.

 

Accommodations

Students can stay at the rustic French country Inn, La Duchesse Anne, 2 blocks from Jeff’s house, unless they make other housing arrangements.

An accommodation for one week is $250.00 for a single room (plus 2 meals); or, $200.00 for a double bed room (plus 2 meals each). The required meals are around $30.00 each, which will be eaten as a group.

 

Required Materials

•  Laptop with Photoshop, Lightroom, Photo Mechanic (some editing program).

•  Camera with battery charger, card reader

 

From FotoVisura

All participants will be sponsored with a one year Standard FotoVisura Account. You will create a profile that includes a bio and upload one album with the final edit of images by the end of the course. In addition, Jeff Jacobson will select one image per student, which will be uploaded to an album in the FotoVisura Profile.

 

Jeff Jacobson’s Biography

Jeff Jacobson is a photographer based in Mt. Tremper, a Catskills hamlet about two hours north of New York. His work can be found in permanent collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Houston Museum of Fine Art, among others. He has shot assignments for magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Time, Geo, Stern,and Life.

 

Website: www.jeffjacobsonphotography.com | Read Full Biography