boundaries unknown
with nicholas x bent
May 14 – June 18, 2025
Course Description
a place far from the “known”, where I rest my mind…play…reach…and let go.
this workshop with nicholas x bent looks to find the unknown of the image…to confront the boundaries we employ in photography and step away from standard practices.
during our six group sessions, we explore various aspects of photography, apply contradictory techniques, and intentional camera movements to landscape, street, and figurative subjects. presenting images from photographers from across the globe, discussing the techniques used and the manual settings to explore expression. in each of the sessions, assignments are given and reviewed during the following session. only the use of manual settings and no in-camera programs (e.g. photo stacking) are used. the camera from behind your eye.
prior to the commencement of the first session, participants submit two images for review and discussion. these images should reflect the individual’s sense of photographic expression and esthetic, only utilizing the camera’s manual settings and single exposures will be considered. all images must present the settings, camera used, as well as post-processing method.
Additional Information
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
What You Should Know:
This is an advanced ICM workshop. Participants must be technically proficient in using their digital cameras to create ICM imagery and be able to download and select images using image editing software for class sessions. This advanced workshop requires submission of a portfolio for final admission; see information below.
Portfolio Required:
Please see the Portfolio Section of Registration Information for guidelines on your submission of 20 ICM images.
Special Notes:
Class will meet 5:30 – 7:30 pm (Mountain Time) on Wednesdays starting May 14 and ending June 18 (six online group sessions). Enrollment is limited to 12 participants.
Zoom Video Conferencing software (available for no charge from Zoom.com) will be used to facilitate the class sessions. Further details will be emailed to registrants.
Santa Fe Workshops always aims to produce a high-quality experience for our online attendees. That said, variables including regional and local internet provider speeds, traffic on Zoom's servers, and your own computing hardware can contribute to a less than ideal streaming event. While we do our best to minimize the impact of these variables, they are outside the control of Santa Fe Workshops.
Policies:
View Withdrawal and Transfer Policies for online programs.
For the convenience of participants, recordings of each class session are posted privately for one month after the end of each session. Santa Fe Workshops takes the recordings down after one month to protect the intellectual property of our instructors.
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about
nicholas x bent is a canadian contemporary fine art photographer utilizing camera movements and distortion to create unique landscape images.
raised in a northern mining town in ontario, canada, i experienced the contrast of stark rugged landscapes stripped by mine operations and pristine old growth forests, of eerie blue lakes deadened by acid rain fallout from the mine smelter stacks and green lakes filled with the promise of dinner.
this land was heaved up from the earth’s core and settled by sediment—islands of red granite shot through with veins of black granite and gleaming quartz in streams of pocked limestone. spruce, cedar, and junipers – hundreds of years old perched on cliffs with only the promise of tomorrows rain. the land’s ghosts travel on the winds and lodge in the valleys, gorges, and crevasses, revealing history to those with eyes to see it.
our occupation of this land places intensifying demand on nature with each passing generation, and yet our connection to this wildness diminishes in lock step with its destruction. each portrait of a tree, or grouping of trees or a building invites the viewer to consider its uniqueness and its place – or put another way – its individuality. the movement in each of the images assists in the construction of an understanding about the sentience of the subject, and perhaps a recognition of parallels in feeling between the viewer and the subject. the viewer might then understand the isolation or eradication of wildness as not only an ecological tragedy but a societal and spiritual one as well.
Website: xbentphotography.com
Instagram: @nicholasxbent
