Online

Expressive Black-and-White Landscapes

with Carlan Tapp

Online registration for this program has closed. To check availability, find out about future dates, or if you would like further information, please call 505-983-1400 ext. 111. Also, get the SFW E-Newsletter for updates!

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Course Description

Landscape photography is formed by the point of view of the photographer; it is a spiritual experience, the reflection of a culture. Historically, the great masters of black-and-white landscape used large-format cameras and traditional film processes. Now advances in digital technology have opened new opportunities for photographers who wish to explore the aesthetic and technical aspects of digital black-and-white landscapes.

The earth has a vast range of landscapes, including the icy landscapes of polar regions, mountainous landscapes, vast arid desert landscapes, islands and coastal landscapes, densely forested or wooded landscapes including past boreal forests and tropical rainforests, and agricultural landscapes of temperate and tropical regions. Most importantly, we quite often overlook the landscapes we live within which exist right out outside the door we open each day in our lives.

The character of a landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit it and a sense of place that differentiates one region from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people’s lives. During this online workshop we explore landscape as varied as farmland, a city park, the ocean beach, or the backyard of your home.

In this workshop with Carlan Tapp we take the time to learn, to see, and fully express the spirit of the black-and-white landscape as we discover a place and the secrets of its beauty. We consider the concept of landscape and how it is connected to the cultural, social, and geographical aspects of our environment.

We combine traditional Zone System methodology with new digital processes to forge a complete digital grayscale workflow. We learn to express in the black-and-white image our personal interpretations of landscape. Blending traditional, new, and emerging techniques and technologies, we discover the extraordinary possibilities of expressive digital black-and-white landscape work.

Additional Information

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
Amateurs, Advanced Amateurs
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.

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.

Categories
Black & White Photography, Nature & Landscape
© Carlan Tapp
about
Carlan Tapp

Carlan Tapp is a documentary filmmaker and photographer. In the late 1970s, he assisted Ansel Adams for three years at his Yosemite Workshops, and shortly thereafter he enrolled in Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. A descendant of the Wicocomico Tribe (Taptico family), Carlan, together with his wife, founded Naamehnay Project-Question of Power, a federal nonprofit focused on creating a visual voice for Native American homelands and sacred sites impacted by energy industrialization in America. Carlan’s work has been featured in Harley-Davidson HOG Magazine, New Mexico Magazine, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Associated Press, and NPR’s “Living on Earth.” His photo essays are syndicated by Redux Pictures in New York.

Carlan’s project, Question of Power, opens at the New Mexico Museum of History in Santa Fe in 2025. Two decades of work, including black and white photographs, audio interviews, and short films will be showcased as part of an exhibit on climate change.

When he is not teaching, Carlan can be found riding his iron pony on two-lane highways across the American Southwest telling the stories of people, places, and the landscape.

Upcoming programs with Carlan Tapp
The Art of the Short Film
with Carlan Tapp
The Desert Landscape
with Carlan Tapp

Expressive Black-and-White Landscapes

January 4 – 22, 2025

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