Elements of Softness: An Introduction to ICM and Multiple Exposure Photography
with Sophia Wasteneys
May 7 – 9, 2027
Course Description
Join fine-art photographer Sophia Wasteneys in Santa Fe for a deep dive into crafting personally expressive imagery through a variety of creative in-camera techniques. This workshop offers space for photographers to move beyond the literal and create painterly and poetic work by harnessing the following tools: slow shutter speed, intentional camera movement (ICM), and in-camera multiple exposure (ME). With full creative control, we soften and transform the hard edges of representational photography into a far more personal artistic practice that is both deeply meaningful to you and in which you are represented in.
With slow shutter speed, we experiment with absence and presence, obscuring and abstracting. We look closely at photography as a time-based medium and explore the tension of motion within the confines of the still image.
With ICM, you learn to shape, morph, and harness light and movement to convey form and concept, ephemerality and metaphor, and to evoke emotion, tone, and atmosphere. Here, our inner world corresponds with the outer.
With multiple exposure, we build images up in layers and textures, forming narratives through juxtapositions. With Sophia’s guidance, we learn how light, color, and form interact when exposed together.
Over the course of our three days together, we spend time both in the field and in the studio. We learn to integrate the abundant textures, symbols, and forms found in nature with experimental studio and environmental portraiture. Working with models, we explore subjects in a narrative context as well as in symbolic and abstracted ways. We journal together in an active practice of being present and developing our own unique artistic voice. Daily conversation topics and lectures draw from the works of surrealists and abstract impressionists alongside contemporary artists using these tools in their practice today.
This workshop welcomes participants new to ICM and ME, and includes a comprehensive technical introduction to each process. We dive into the mechanics of manual mode and explore the tools recommended for an ICM/ME practice: ND filters and polarizers, in-camera blending modes, and techniques of intentional camera movement (panning, tilting, zooming, sweeping). Editing demonstrations in Adobe Lightroom focus on techniques that respond to and build upon the conceptual themes and tonal quality of each image. We also touch on multiple exposure compositing using blending modes in Adobe Photoshop.
With slow shutter speed, ICM, and ME as tools, participants are guided to expand their photographic practice and create intentional imagery reflective of their deeper vision. Join us for a long weekend during Santa Fe’s beautiful springtime to slow down, harness new techniques, and connect with your inner world.
Additional Information
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
Beginners, Amateurs. No prior experience with intentional camera movement (ICM) or multiple exposure (ME) is required for participation in this workshop. Participants with basic experience in ICM or ME seeking to expand their creative practice are also welcome.
What You Should Know:
Working knowledge of digital workflow and manual mode on your digital SLR or mirrorless camera. Participants must be able to download and select images using image editing software for class sessions. Basic proficiency with Adobe Lightroom will allow for the best experience in this workshop.
Activity Level:
Participants should be able to engage in moderate outdoor exercise for up to an hour or more at a time including off-trail walking on uneven terrain including sand, dirt, and loose rock. Location work is likely to include early morning and/or late evening shoots.
Accommodations:
Participants are responsible for making their own housing arrangements in Santa Fe. On-campus accommodations are not currently available.
Package Price INFO:
$1,195 includes instruction, model & location fees, daily beverage service, and one group dinner. Travel, accommodations, and all other meals are the responsibility of the participant.
Policies:
View Payment, Refund, Cancellation, and Transfer Policies for domestic workshops.
about
Sophia Wasteneys is a multidisciplinary artist born in New Mexico raised in Northern California. Her work lives in the duality of faint memory and visceral flashback. It is a quiet, slow, and intimate study of self preservation, of softness as an act of resistance, of the interconnectedness of loss and growth, and of movement and layering as gentle protective armor to hide behind and to shed. Like a moth to light, her work always returns to body/home–to the loneliness, the ever vast stillness, and the mundane that feels profound. Sophia loves mornings on the porch with coffee, long drives, the smell of the desert when it rains, and most of all, dogs. She is the lab manager at UNM Valencia’s Fine Arts and Digital Media Department, and finds fulfillment cultivating safe, supportive, and welcoming studio spaces. She holds a BA in Theater and English Literature from Mills College.
Instagram: @sophiawasteneys
