On Location
San Miguel de Allende

Mojo Rising: Renew Your Creative Spirit

with Keith Carter

October 20 – 24, 2025

  • Package Price $3195.00
  • International Deposit $1500.00

Course Description

Mojo—from the African Kikongo word Mooyo meaning spiritual spark, force, or soul. Ranging from hexes and charms to medicine to magical objects, mojo is everywhere, and has many powers. The believers use it to enhance their lives and imbue them with special meaning.

Join fine-art photographer Keith Carter in lovely, historic San Miguel de Allende for an adventurous hands-on guide to contemporary skills and new post-production techniques to get your mojo rising. This new workshop is designed to help you both elevate and renew your creative spirit and is a good choice for alumni of Keith’s previous workshops as well as anyone interested in raising the bar in the pursuit of artistic expression.

In addition to creative fieldwork, we examine strategies for producing new work, working on long-term projects, book-making, expressive printmaking techniques, and balancing the various aspects of a busy creative life. Through daily discussions centering on the work of both historically significant and little-known photographers, demonstrations, and several photographic sessions on location with models, we find new paths to creative growth.

Keith has spent more than 25 years photographing in and around San Miguel de Allende and he has found that not a day goes by in this charming pueblo without something to delight the eye, tantalize the senses, or expand the consciousness. It’s the perfect catalyst for creating expressive portraits, landscapes, still lifes, or architectural images. Participants are encouraged to work in whatever format they choose and to bring both a sense of humor and a sense of purpose.

Additional Information

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
Advanced Amateurs, Professionals
What You Should Know:

All camera formats are welcome. Participants must be able to download, select, and submit images for class each day.

Portfolio Required:

Please see the Portfolio Section of Registration Information for guidelines on your submission of recent images pertinent to this class.

Special Notes:

Participants should plan to travel to San Miguel no later than Sunday, October 19. Workshop check-in will be on Monday morning, followed by breakfast and a brief orientation. The workshop ends on Friday evening with a final dinner and image presentations.

Visit the San Miguel Campus page on our website for details on accommodations, meals, transportation, and more.

Activity Level:
To get the most from your workshop experience, participants should be in good physical (mobility, stamina) and mental health. Come prepared for the high elevation of San Miguel de Allende, long days, and seasonal weather. You must be able to carry your own photographic and personal gear at all times, both on campus and on location. You are responsible for being open and honest about your physical fitness, and we reserve the right to remove you from the workshop if we find your fitness to be less than that which you have described.
Participants should be able to engage in moderate outdoor exercise for up to an hour or more at a time including walking on uneven terrain such as cobblestone walkways and roads, dirt, and loose rock.
Policies:

View Payment, Refund, Withdrawal, and Transfer Policies for this International Program.

Accommodations:

We encourage participants to stay on campus at Hotel Posada de la Aldea for ease of proximity to retreat activities and well-priced rooms. Double accommodations (for couples or friends taking workshops together) are $415 per person for 6 nights (approximately $70 per person, per night), Sunday through Friday, or $830 per person, single accommodations for 6 nights (approximately $140 per night), Sunday through Friday. Additional nights at the hotel can be arranged for participants; please discuss needs with the Administration Office in Santa Fe.

Package Price INFO:

$3,195 (USD) includes tuition, breakfast Monday through Saturday, lunch Monday through Friday, final dinner on Friday, and model/location/materials fees if applicable to the class. Hotel accommodations are not included in the package price; see details above.

Categories
Creative Vision, Fine Art
© John Reese
about
Keith Carter

Called a “Poet of the Ordinary” by the Los Angeles Times, and recipient of the Texas Medal of Arts, Keith Carter’s haunting, enigmatic photographs have been shown in over one hundred solo exhibitions in thirteen countries.

Fourteen monographs of his work have been published, including the recently released Ghostlight. Featured on the arts segment of nationally televised CBS Sunday Morning, Keith is the recipient of the Lange-Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. His work is included in numerous private and public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, The National Portrait Gallery, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The George Eastman House, and The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University.

A gifted and insightful teacher, Keith holds the Endowed Walles Chair of Art & Design at Lamar University in Texas where he was awarded the University’s highest teaching honors; the Regents’ Professor Award and Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Prize.

Get to know Keith in our Inspiration Series video »

Mojo Rising: Renew Your Creative Spirit

October 14 – 18, 2024

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