With
Rania Matar
When
September 17 - October 5, 2020
Category
SFW Online, Portraiture
Tuition
595.00
Registration Info
“The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
Now is the time, above all others to find ways to connect with the people we are closest to. Using the power of photography is one important way to do this, but how do we connect with people and make powerful and intimate portraits when we are isolated, maintaining a 6-foot separation, wearing masks, and mostly disconnected from the outside world?
In this new online workshop with portrait photographer and teacher Rania Matar, we think outside the box, but also simultaneously we look inward. We learn to seek the beauty in the intimate, personal, and familiar moments of daily life. We challenge ourselves to make portraits within the confinement of home, and we discuss how to photograph people intimately despite separations and masks. We consider how we can each find a way to tell our personal story and make poignant portraits of that unique moment in history that we are all experiencing differently. We review all the elements of what makes a good portrait and explore the process of creatively working with people.
We discover new ways to pay attention to detail, postures, expressions, and the use of the personal environment, while working through the process and all the details of creating a great portrait. We learn to use framing, light, location, background, body language, the significance of the gaze, as well paying close attention to the relationship of the photographer to the subject throughout the entire process.
Over the course of our time together, we explore and discover the many different aspects of portraiture — close-up portraits, environmental portraits, documentary portraits, collaborative portraits, self-portraits, group portraits, and conceptual portraits. We also review the images of.
Weekly assignments encourage students to truly and intimately see their subject and find their own voice in this creative process of making beautiful, powerful portraits. Rania leads group image reviews of this new work and also shares the work of well-known artists for ideas and inspiration.
This timely three-week workshop with Rania offers community, connection, and reveals important new ways of creating intimate portraits of the people we share our lives with.
Additional Information
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
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.
SPECIAL NOTES:
Class will meet 12:00-2:00 p.m. (Mountain Time) on Thursdays and Mondays starting September 17 and ending October 5 (six online group sessions). Enrollment is limited to 13 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.
Please Note: During the online registration process you will be asked about housing and meals. Answer no to both questions.
TUITION INFO:
Includes tax.
Rania Matar was born and raised in Lebanon and moved to the United States in 1984. As a Lebanese-born American woman and mother, her cross-cultural experience and personal narrative inform her photography. She is currently Associate Professor of Photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Rania’s work has been widely published and exhibited in museums worldwide, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Carnegie Museum of Art and more. It is part of the permanent collections of several museums, institutions and private collections. A mid-career retrospective of her work was recently on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, in a solo exhibition: In Her Image: Photographs by Rania Matar. Her work is in the permanent collections of several museums, institutions and private collections worldwide. She has published three books: L’Enfant-Femme, 2016; A Girl and Her Room, 2012; Ordinary Lives, 2009.
She has received several grants and awards including a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship, 2017 Mellon Foundation artist-in-residency grant at the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College, 2011 Legacy Award at the Griffin Museum of Photography, 2011 and 2007 Massachusetts Cultural Council artist fellowships. In 2008 she was a finalist for the Foster Award at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, with an accompanying solo exhibition.
Website: www.raniamatar.com
Instagram: @raniamatar