A sketchbook is a valuable tool for studio practice: a vessel to help artists preserve their thoughts, process their ideas, and grow as makers. For photographers, a sketchbook can be a place to write down exposure records, keep notes during courses or lectures, display exhibition postcards, preserve test prints (and scraps that may otherwise be destined for the trash), and more. Because everyone approaches the practice in a different way, no two sketchbooks look the same.
Kelly Webeck introduces various ways that the sketchbook can be used as a tool for a photographer’s studio practice. Together we look at examples of sketchbooks from contemporary photographers, both established and emerging, to see how the written word is combined with visuals to support a developing body of work. These examples are shared alongside images of finished bodies of work (and, when available, installation photographs), so we can discuss the connections between the sketchbook process and the final pieces.
Through guided visual and written assignments, participants are given the opportunity to work with their own sketchbooks over the course of the workshop, and we share our ongoing progress in the second half of each group session. As you get comfortable writing with courage and conviction, you discover how a sketchbook practice can substantially influence your image-making.
Class will meet 10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Mountain Time) on Saturdays starting January 20 and ending on February 24 (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.
Kelly Webeck is a photographer and visual arts educator based in Berlin, Germany. She received her BFA in visual art studies from the University of Texas at Austin and her MFA in photography from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her photographic research is about Holocaust history, memory, and education. As an artist, she is interested in bookbinding, analogue photography, and the use of vernacular photography in contemporary practices. She has maintained a sketchbook practice that supports her photography for more than 15 years.
Instagram: @rocketfacedweeb
