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!
my face against the window of a car… tears streaming, because i want to see something. the world drifts past and “i find you… here”
this workshop with nicholas x bent looks to find the margins of the image… the soul that emerges as you confront that “something underneath.” developing or perhaps breaking down your knowledge of icm and pressing the eject button on standard photographic practices, let us explore transformative imagery.
during our six group sessions, we explore various aspects of photography, apply contradictory techniques, 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 (eg. photo stacking) are used. the camera from behind your eye.
prior to 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 cameras manual settings and single exposures will be considered. all images must present the settings, camera used, as well as post processing method.
there is a past, present, and future… where do i stand?
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.
Please see the Portfolio Section of Registration Information for guidelines on your submission of 20 ICM images.
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.
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
