Whether you plan to work on completing an existing project or start a new one, this online experience focuses on building your skills and defining a personal voice in order to create visually compelling stories. Is there a topic, a place, or a character you have been photographing that you want to unearth from your hard drives and create a thoughtful, engaging photographic narrative? Or maybe there is a new story to tell that you can photograph near home. Come join us as we dive into the art of visual storytelling.
Deanne helps each participant develop a refined eye to create a photographic narrative — whether it’s a personal project or a visual story for a magazine, foundation or nonprofit. We discuss the skills required that contribute to a memorable and impactful story including framing and composition, camera equipment, and lighting to help capture the telling moments and raw emotion.
Showing examples from her own Pulitzer Prize winning photo story, Deanne discusses how to find a story, or what to do when a story finds you. We discuss different approaches to documentary storytelling, how to gain access to the story you want to tell, how to find an authentic project that is personally meaningful, and how curiosity, intuition, and serendipity play a part in finding and photographing your story. Deanne reveals her thought process and problem-solving techniques in creating images that in themselves tell a story. We delve into the techniques to creating a single storytelling image, and how to build images together to create a narrative. The business aspects of sustainable visual storytelling including finding an audience through editorial publishing, funding sources for your work including grants, and distribution including social media are also discussed.
Using the Santa Fe Workshops facilitated and interactive Zoom classroom, our group sessions include are lively discussions, lectures, and in-depth image reviews that dive into the fun and creative challenge of editing, sequencing, pacing, and curating your project into a structured, cohesive storyline. Whether you are new to visual storytelling or you want to take your long-term personal projects to the next level, you are welcome to be part of a supportive environment where we review individual stories to help each other build impactful narratives.
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 September 12 and ending September 29 (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.
Deanne Fitzmaurice is a Pulitzer Prize winning visual storyteller with a focus on documentary photography and contemporary culture. This San Francisco-based photographer is represented by the National Geographic Image Collection and is a member of the elite Nikon Ambassadors. Deanne has won awards from prestigious organizations including American Photography, Pictures of the Year, PDN Photo Annual, UNICEF, Best of Photojournalism and Communication Arts. Deanne is a regular lecturer and instructor at respected institutions including Stanford University Continuing Education where she has taught Visual Storytelling. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Deanne began her career as a staff photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle. She is a co-founder, with her husband, photographer Kurt Rogers, of Think Tank Photo.
Website: deannefitzmaurice.com
Instagram: @deannefitzmaurice
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