ONLINE PHOTOGRAPHY
FALL 2024
ALISSA HESSLER
Project Launch!
This course is for anyone who is ready to commit to a photography project who would like instruction, encouragement, feedback and mentorship to see a photography project through to completion.
Tuition $795
SCHEDULE
Group sessions will be held on Tuesday evenings, starting at 5pm ET. Each group session will run roughly 1-2.5 hours, depending on lecture, discussion and critique times. Twenty minute one-on-one sessions with Alissa are 20 minutes long and will be scheduled between the hours of 4pm - 8pm.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
STAY INSPIRED. STAY ENGAGED. STAY CONNECTED. KEEP CREATING.
Are you a hobbyist, amateur or early-career photographer who is feeling ready to take the next step in your photographic journey? You are passionate about photography, and have work that you are proud of, but you don’t know how to move forward, hone your skills and find your unique voice. How can you stay engaged, productive and inspired if you don’t have a definitive purpose behind your efforts? How can the work you make have a positive impact, create new opportunities and reach a wider audience? Projects! That's how.
Bodies of work help motivate you to discover, research and explore. They help you gain access to places and people you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Bodies of work can also help establish a career and/or name for yourself in photography. Projects also make you a better photographer. Having a subject or location you have to photograph makes you look harder to get the shot in locations or circumstances you might otherwise avoid.
Well-executed projects are how careers are made in photography. One good idea carried out with precision can open doors and provide numerous opportunities for photographic advancement. Working on projects will make you a better photographer. Projects will give you access to people and/or places that are otherwise off limits. Projects help you decode your own unique style and gain a better understanding of what guides your eye and decision making process when composing your images. Projects force you to step outside of your comfort zone and throw variables your way that you have to respond and react to.
Project Launch is for anyone who is ready to commit to a photography project who would like instruction, encouragement, feedback and mentorship to see a photography project through to completion. In this highly collaborative workshop, students will benefit both from our guidance and the insight of your fellow students in our group critique sessions.
SESSION 1
In this group session we will guide students through the entire process (ideation to completion) of doing a photography project. We will provide specific examples from our own projects and the projects of other working photographers. We will discuss how to brainstorm, write your artist statement, storyboard, gain access, best use your time during shoots, how to make difficult editing decisions, sequencing, etc.
Assignment:
• Write a draft of your project artist statement and put together supporting sample visuals
SESSION 2
In this group session students will present their project concept/working artist statement and three supporting sample visuals (either example storyboard imagery or images they have already captured). We will provide feedback on things to consider when working towards completing/executing their specific project.
Assignment:
• Prepare for one-on-one session by writing down any questions that you have, pulling any images you would like to go over and pulling together/sequencing all of the best images you have made thus far from your project.
SESSION 3 (scheduled One-on-ones)
In this twenty minute one-on-one session, each person will have individual time to present their work-in-progress, ask any questions about editing/processing/getting unstuck/etc., and get feedback to complete their project
Assignment:
• Finish shooting, editing, sequencing and preparing your final project to present in our last group session critique.
SESSION 4
In this final group session, students will present their completed project of up to 15 sequenced images and their artist statement. Feedback will be provided for fine tune considerations and suggestions on ways to distribute and/or share this work with a wider audience. If there are more than 10 students enrolled, we will have two final presentation groups. Students are welcome to participate in both final critique sessions or just attend/participate in the one they are presenting in.
WORKSHOP SPECIFICS
Skill level
This workshop is designed for photographers who want to focus their efforts on creating a compelling body of work. Sessions will be hosted on Zoom. You do not need to download Zoom to participate on a desktop or laptop computer. You do need to download the Zoom app if accessing from a phone or tablet. A Zoom link will be sent several days before the start of the workshop.
HOURS
All group sessions and one-on-ones will be hosted on Zoom. Group sessions will run roughly 1 - 2.5 hours, depending on number of students, lecture, discussion and critique times. One-on-one sessions with Jacob and Alissa will be 20-minutes in duration.
CLASS SIZE
A maximum of 15 students, and a minimum of 8*
*The workshop will be cancelled if minimum enrollment is not met within 7 days of the workshop start. If cancelled, a full refund will be issued to all registered students.
TUITION
$795
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
ALISA
HESSLER
Jacob Hessler is a contemporary fine art photographer, known for his expansive and meditative landscapes. Hessler’s work has explored rising seas, industrialized farming, borders and boundaries, invasive species, extinction, and more broadly, mankind's relationship with, and impact on, the natural world. His keen eye and use of scale connects viewers with the vastness of the human experience.
Jacob is a graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, and pursued his master’s degree in graphic design at Parsons, The New School for Design. He worked in New York as a commercial photographer and art director from 2006-2011. In 2011, Hessler left New York and moved back to his childhood hometown in mid-coast Maine to focus on fine art landscape photography. Jacob’s work is widely collected and displayed throughout the world. He is a represented artist at Dowling Walsh Gallery, Corey Daniels Gallery and Soapbox Arts.
With a diverse background in art direction, photography, and film production management, Alissa Hessler has worked as both the director for creative talent and as the creative talent. She has shot and produced content for international publications and brands, art directed and produced commercial shoots, managed global launch events, and orchestrated rebrands of international corporations. In her free time she continues to champion young farmers and rural small business owners through her Urban Exodus project. Her first book Ditch the City and Go Country, was released in 2017, distributed by Macmillan Press.
Jacob and Alissa have been teaching photography for the last decade at Maine Media, Santa Fe Photographic Workshops and other institutions across the country. They also operate their own creative workshop studio in Midcoast Maine and host destination workshops on Cumberland Island and the Lost Coast of California.
