Strange, uncanny, kitsch, and just plain weird. Props in photographic portraits can be as benign as a pair of sunglasses or a garden hose. But what happens when the objects are used outside their intended purpose? What happens when an exercise ball replaces a head? When a yoga block becomes a graphic shape in a minimalist photograph? When a fake hand used for manicure practice peeks out from a fleshy, voluminous body? The object’s function mutates and transforms the narrative.
Join fine-art photographer Selina Román for this new online workshop as she guides you in exploring the various ways props can be used for narrative and symbolic effects. From objects around the house to industrial parts or beauty products, a world of creative possibility awaits. Discussion and experimentation include the selection and use of props, clothing, color, and location to create meaning and mystery. The importance of posing and lighting are also covered. Alternative approaches such as staged portraits, self-portraits, and the anti-portrait are explored as well.
While participants are welcome to purchase items for this workshop, you will find that much of what you need is already in your cupboards and closets. By the close of this extraordinarily fun workshop, you emerge with a newfound approach to creating unique and striking portraiture.
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.
Class will meet 3:30 – 5:30 pm (Mountain Time) on Tuesdays and Fridays starting June 11 and ending June 28 (six 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.
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.
Tampa-based artist and Florida native Selina Roman’s lens-based practice explores ideas of femininity, perception, liminality, memory, and place, and how the invisible offers more answers than what’s visible. Her portraiture work and videos employ color, fashion, and props used in unusual ways, as well as otherworldly locations to create alternate moods and meaning that allow the viewer to create their own narrative.
In her recent series, XS, Selina uses props and bold colors to create staged, abstracted self-portraits that challenge society’s fraught relationships with fat bodies.
Selina received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of South Florida in 2013. Prior, she worked as a newspaper reporter and investigator. Her work is in the collection of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota; the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs, and the Tampa Museum of Art.
Selina has exhibited at institutions such as The Ringling Museum of Art and Tampa Museum of Art, and internationally at Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica and the Universidad del Sagrado Corazon in Puerto Rico. Her work was also featured at Brighton Photo Fringe in the UK during the 2016 Brighton Photo Biennial. She received a Hillsborough County Artist Grant in 2017 and 2021. She was also invited to participate in Review Santa Fe 2019 and 2023, as well as Critical Mass 2020. Selina is full-time Photography and Imaging faculty at the Ringling College of Art and Design.
Website: selinaroman.com
Instagram: @selinaroman
