Memory, Meaning, Objects: Photography as a Meditation on Memory
with Gina Costa
May 14 – June 11, 2026
Course Description
We start with a few basic questions. To what extent do memories inform one’s personal narratives and interior landscape? How and why do we construct memories from the past to lend meaning to the present? How are our photographs a meditation on memory? What happens when objects are lost in a fire, flood, or other natural disaster? The devastating fires in Los Angeles call to mind the significant loss of objects, now all relegated to memory. How are those memories used to rebuild a life and sense of self?
This online workshop with photographic artist and curator Gina Costa explores these questions in pursuit of how objects or certain subject matter are tied to memory and how the choice to photograph these, consciously or subconsciously, is essentially an exercise in the search for meaning. Gina’s goal is to reveal to you a new dimension to your creative practice, one in which an awareness of and meditation on memory can lead to more impactful and personal image-making.
This five-week workshop guides you as we explore and reflect together on why particular objects or subjects are full of meaning for us, why they are critical to our understanding of who we are, and why we feel compelled to photograph them. The course is highly discussion-based, with student reviews serving as a central part of engaging deeply with the material. Join Gina online as you examine, through weekly assignments and image reviews, our impulse to create photographs that relate to our memories and how to expand this practice to create more profound and resonant images.
Additional Information
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
What You Should Know:
This workshop is open to all photographers with a working knowledge of their camera, whether DSLR, mirrorless, or iPhone. Basic computer skills and the ability to download and edit images using software are necessary.
Special Notes:
Class will meet 12:00 – 2:30 pm (Mountain Time) on Thursdays starting May 14 and ending June 11 (five 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.
about
Gina Costa is a photographic artist, museum professional, and independent curator. She earned her graduate degrees in art history from the University of Chicago and has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, The Art Institute of Chicago, and has taught at several universities and colleges. She has written several books and museum catalogues on 20th-century Mexican graphics, and Midcentury Modernist Art in Chicago, among other topics. Gina was a winner of the 2023, 2019, and 2018 Julia Margaret Cameron Photography Awards, a 2023 Camera Lucida Critical Mass Finalist, and the 2016 Latin American Photography Awards. Her work has also been featured in Lensculture, F-Stop Magazine, and Lenscratch. She has taught workshops about mobile photography in the United States and Europe, and is an internationally-know, published, award-winning photographer.
Gina has exhibited at the International Center of Photography, The Mira Foundation, the Griffin Museum of Photography, The Notre Dame Center for Arts and Culture, Filter Space, Perspective Gallery, The Rebekka Jacob Gallery, Charleston, the Minneapolis Photography Center, The Vermont Center for Photography, The LightBox Gallery, Tethys Gallery, and MART, Rovereto, Italy. Her works are in public and private collections in the United States and Europe including The Fratelli Aliniari Archive in Florence Italy.
Website: ginacosta.com
Instagram: @ginacostaphotography
