The Art of Abstract Photography: A Creative Retreat in San Miguel de Allende

Abstract photography today is not just a style, it is a movement. It calls for a departure from the literal, allowing your intuitive nature to drive the creative process. It explores the intersection of photographic realism and abstract expressionism. Rather than capturing identifiable subjects, photographers focus on elements like shapes, colors, lines, and textures to evoke thoughts and feelings. This style breaks away from realism and embraces experimentation with various techniques including intentional camera movement, multiple exposures, layering our compositions, as well as single-image abstractions.

We invite you to join us in October for our second creative abstract retreat in 2025 which takes place in the artful city of San Miguel de Allende. Expanded to five days, this gathering is an invitation to learn from current leaders in the abstract movement. Renee Lynn, Stephanie Johnson, and Philip Sager plus guest presenters Valda Bailey and Shelley Vandegrift each take a unique approach to visual storytelling, turning everyday moments into impactful images to expand the palette of photographic art. 

Over the course of the week, you have the unique opportunity to work directly with all three lead instructors and our guest presenters to engage in hands-on assignments designed to broaden your creative perspectives and technical skillset. Each day, participants rotate with an assigned cohort to a new instructor, who guides them in the creation of expressive artistry, shares insights into the techniques of ICM, ME, and other abstract processes, and offers constructive feedback on new images made during the week. We gather on a daily basis for campus-wide lectures, demonstrations, image reviews, and group conversations, as well as enjoy breakfast and lunch together. Afternoons are spent on locations in and around colorful San Miguel de Allende to create new imagery. All are encouraged to collaborate and share feedback within and across cohorts, fostering a supportive community of new perspectives and inspiration.

If there is another small city in the world that rivals Santa Fe as an art mecca, it’s certainly San Miguel de Allende. Since 2001, it has been our “home-away-from-home” each October. A UNESCO World Heritage site, this popular travel destination offers a gracious environment for exploring the culture of the historic town while pursuing your passion for photography. This colonial jewel has been a destination for artists since the 1940s and is now home to a strong and constantly evolving community of creatives and art lovers from around the world. 

Each of our three lead instructors contributes a different approach to abstraction, offering unique ideas, technical demonstrations, and direction. Stephanie is thrilled to return to teach in San Miguel de Allende and share her in-camera processes to create ICM and ME images, revealing the fantastical worlds that can be created with these techniques. The passion, knowledge, and vision Stephanie imparts inspires you to see things differently, push boundaries, and tap more fully into your own creative self. 

Philip Is inspired by the emotional complexity that influences visual imagery, which our brains simplify as we perceive, absorb, and comprehend information. Normally our eyes see all of the visual information, but our brains typically focus us on only one or two major objects, thus limiting what we actually “see.” In making photographs, captured in the real world, camera optics lets us experience the rich visual complexity and multiple layers that our brains simplify, as visual data is processed. To illustrate this perspective, Philip’s photographs are created in camera as single images without multiple exposures or added content during post-processing.

Renee focuses on exploring the techniques of painterly ICM and the creative application of multiple exposures and layered textures. She shares the process of constructing a final image, highlighting the progression from a traditional photograph to an expressionistic one. The result is imagery that prioritizes personal experience by employing bold colors, exaggerated forms, and rich texture.

Our two guest presenters provide important insights into their creative and technical processes. Valda joins us via Zoom from England to share her current ideas and perceptions on impressionistic art making. Shelley leads multiple Zoom sessions from Santa Fe focused on taking your creative post-processing skills to the next level using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. 

By blending the technical with the intuitive, this retreat in world-renowned San Miguel de Allende offers a unique opportunity to experiment with new techniques, push the boundaries, and cultivate your own artistic voice. We encourage you to engage deeply, question freely, and dive deep into the realm of innovative photographic techniques that celebrate revealing the unseen.