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COURSE DESCRIPTION
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STAY INSPIRED. STAY ENGAGED. STAY CONNECTED. KEEP CREATING.
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The world around us has changed, yet the creative approach to landscape photography has remained largely the same. The Quiet Landscape is a fresh approach to traditional landscape photography. Break the rules, look deeper and ignore the easy postcard shots. In this workshop you will be challenged to remove the clutter, the obvious and the cliché from your frame to create memorable and powerful images with your own distinct visual voice. This workshop will inspire existing photographers, as well as those new to the field, to create distinctive imagery that embraces the minimal while transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary.
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The Quiet Landscape is our signature course that we have been teaching for the last decade at institutions all over the country. We have adapted our format for online, interactive learning, which allows students to see a diversity of styles and images captured from students all over the world.
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This class will explore the work of other contemporary photographers using the landscape as a subject. Photographer, art director and photo editor Alissa Hessler, will help students begin to identify and hone their own signature style. She will provide insight on how to be a more ruthless editor, how to find hidden potential by revisiting your archives, and how to work towards developing a concise body of work for exhibition.
Through slideshows, class critiques and demos, students will capture their own interpretation of the modern landscape, distilling it down to its unforgettable essence. This class is a balance of honing the artist’s eye and advancing technical skills. Students will be inspired to change their perspective and see photographic possibilities in seemingly familiar scenes.
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At the end of the workshop, you will feel creativity invigorated and confident to shoot, critique, and edit your photography in new ways.
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SESSION 1: LECTURES & DEMOS
Sunday, November 10th, 1pm
All of our Quiet Landscape lecture materials and ample time to ask questions throughout (we take an intermission halfway through to prevent information overload) - All lecture materials delivered as PDF at the end for students to refer back to while working on their assignment. This session will be 2-3 hours long.
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1. Instructor and student introductions:
- Students present 5-7 images of existing work that give an idea of style and focus
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2. Lectures:
- Rules of composition applied to landscape and your toolkit to organize a chaotic scene
- Embracing the Negative (space)
- Signature Style & Developing Bodies of Work
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3. Video Demos:
- Long exposure for day (neutral density)
- Long exposure for night
- Light painting at night
- Tripod best practices
ASSIGNMENT
- 15-20 final images edited and sequenced
- 1 project statement for the images created
- 1 overall artist statement about your work in general
SESSION 2: GROUP CRITIQUE
Sunday, December 8th, 1pm
Critique everyone’s assignment work and ample time for discussion and questions. If the class is larger than 7 students this will be broken up into two sessions. Students can choose to attend both or just the one they are showing their work in.
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SCHEDULE
The first class session will meet on Sunday, November 10th at 1pm ET and the second session will meet on Sunday, December 8th at 1pm ET on Zoom. Each session will be roughly 2-3 hours long.
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WORKSHOP SPECIFICS
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Skill level
This workshop is designed for photographers of all skills levels who want to up their photography game. Sessions will be hosted on Zoom. Once you have completed registration we will send you your Zoom login information for the course. 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.
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HOURS
Sessions will run roughly 2-3 hours, depending on class size.
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CLASS SIZE
A maximum of 15 students. If workshop size is larger than 7, the second critique session will be broken into two groups.
*The workshop will be cancelled if minimum enrollment is not met within 15 days of the workshop start. If cancelled, a full refund will be issued to all registered students.
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TUITION
$495
​ MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
ALISSA
HESSLER
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.
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For the decade Alissa has taught at Maine Media, Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, Palm Beach Photographic Centre, Sedona Arts Center and other institutions across the country. She also runs destination workshops at her farm in Maine, on Cumberland Island in Georgia and on the Lost Coast of California.