Photography Workshops at Penland
Penland offers 1 to 8-week workshops taught by visiting instructors in our well-equipped studios. Class topics include traditional and digital photography, darkroom processes, portrait photography, documentary video, lighting composition, narrative photography, and more. Workshops are open to serious students of all levels unless specified in course description; beginners welcome.
Register for Workshops
Workshops are open to serious students of all levels unless specified in course description; beginners welcome.
Summer scholarship information; summer scholarship application deadline is February 15.
Please read this note about our session schedules.
Photography – Spring Short Session
April 30 – May 5, 2023 (4 studio days)
Richard Tuschman
The Poetic Portrait
Selfies, profile pics, and headshots are ubiquitous in contemporary pictorial culture, but how can we create portraits that transcend the ordinary? How do we photograph faces and figures to suggest deeper psychological truths, both particular to the subject and universal to our shared humanity? Using the examples of past masters, as well as Richard’s own work, we’ll start at the beginning, exploring the expressive elements of composition, color, gesture, environment, and both studio and natural lighting. Together we’ll pursue a quest to become emotional messengers through the medium of portrait photography. Students will need to bring a digital camera with manual controls. All levels.
Fine art photographer; teaching: Ringling College (FL), University of Akron (OH), Maine Media Workshops, Los Angeles Center of Photography; New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Photolucida Critical Mass Top Fifty (2014, 2016, 2021); exhibitions: Center for Photographic Art (CA), Museum of Contemporary Art Krakow (Poland), Photovisa Festival (Russia); representation: Klompching Gallery (NYC), photo-eye Gallery (NM).
PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMER SESSION 1
MAY 28–JUNE 2, 2023
Tokie Rome-Taylor
Cyanotype: Alternative Process Image-Making
This fun, experimental cyanotype workshop will use two photosensitive chemicals and light to make distinctly blue images on various materials—from paper to fabrics. We’ll create imagery with organic materials and explore how to make and print from digital negatives. And we’ll combine these processes by collaging negatives and objects. Further creative possibilities will be explored through the use of wet cyanotype on both wet and dry substrates. Bring digital image files along with any ephemeral items, like feathers and flowers, that you may want to incorporate. If time permits, we’ll also explore print embellishments. All levels.
Studio artist: exhibitions: The Wren’s Nest (Atlanta), APG Gallery (Atlanta), Carnegie Hall (NYC), Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago), Griffin Museum of Photography (MA); collections: Southeastern Museum of Photography (FL), Fralin Museum (VA), Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia; representation: Amika Dawkins Gallery (Atlanta), Spalding Nix Gallery (Atlanta).
PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMER SESSION 2
JUNE 4–16, 2023
Pipo Nguyen-duy
Sense of Place
This workshop will focus on portraiture in the environment using 35mm cameras and black and white film. We’ll work to create portraits that highlight the significance of their locations. The workshop will cover camera functions, film processing, and black and white printing in the darkroom. This workshop will be an opportunity for students to engage with each other as they explore concepts and techniques. Cameras are available at Penland and students are also welcome to bring their own. Darkroom experience will be helpful, but this workshop is open to all levels.
Professor at Oberlin College; grants: Guggenheim, En Foco, National Endowment for the Arts, Oregon Arts Commission fellowship, multiple individual artist fellowships from Ohio Arts Council; residencies: Light Works (NY), Headlands Center for the Arts (CA), Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Artists at Giverny Fellowship (France); exhibitions: Sam Lee Gallery (Los Angeles), Elizabeth Leach Gallery (Portland, OR), Light Works (NY); representation: CLAMPART (NYC).
PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMER SESSION 3
JUNE 18–30, 2023
Elizabeth Ellenwood
Cameraless Photography
Leave your cameras behind and create photographs using objects and light. Students will experiment with multiple wet-darkroom contact printing processes, scanner-made images, and digital printing techniques. Daily demonstrations will be balanced with presentations covering a range of historical and contemporary photography. This workshop will broaden the concept of what it means to “make” a photograph and will give students plenty of time for experimentation. All levels.
Studio artist; teaching: University of Connecticut; awards: Fulbright Norway Scholarship, American Scandinavian Grant, Connecticut Sea Grant Arts Support Award, University of Connecticut Zachs Award, Denis Roussel Merit Award; exhibitions: For-Site Foundation (CA), Vermont Center for Photography (VT), Alexey Von Schlippe Gallery (CT), Panopticon Gallery (MA), Danforth Museum (MA); collections: Danforth Art Museum (MA), Rochester Museum of Fine Art (NY), New Hampshire Institute of Art; publications: Lenscratch, The Westerly Sun, Art New England, Boston Globe
PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMER SESSION 4
JULY 2–14, 2023
Millee Tibbs
Large-Format Photography
This workshop will use large-format (4×5) cameras to explore the language and craft of analog photography. Through technical demonstrations, guided exercises, and lots of practice in the darkroom, students will gain complete compositional control of their images using the view camera’s tilt, swing, shift, and rise movements to adjust focus, perspective, and image shape. Students will process sheet film and make darkroom prints to produce a small portfolio of self-expressive photographs. No darkroom experience required. Cameras provided. All levels.
Associate professor at Wayne State University; residencies: two MacDowell Colony fellowships, Jentel Foundation (WY), Marpha Foundation (Nepal), Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; exhibitions: SFO Museum (San Francisco), Aperture Gallery (NYC), Filter Space (Chicago); collections: George Eastman House (NY), Detroit Institute of Arts, Chrysler Museum (VA), Portland Art Museum (OR), Rhode Island School of Design Museum.
PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMER SESSION 5
JULY 16–28, 2023
Robin Dreyer and Jeff Goodman
Photography in the 4th Dimension
From motion to memory, time has been a central medium and subject of photography. This workshop will explore a wide range of photographic techniques that employ time directly, including light painting, motion studies, flip books, pinhole cameras, view cameras, cinemagraphs, and stop-motion animation. We’ll use analog cameras, digital cameras, digital printers, and the darkroom, experimenting with making both still and moving images that play with—and celebrate—the most mysterious of dimensions. Students will go home with new images, new photographic skills, and maybe some new thoughts about the universe. All levels, beginners encouraged.
Jeff: award-winning instructor in the media studies program at Appalachian State University (NC); extensive experience leading workshops in photography, documentary video, and the relationship between art, science, and the creative process.
Robin: photographer, editor, communications manager at Penland; teaching: Penland; exhibitions: Asheville Art Museum (NC), North Carolina Museum of Art, Center for Alternative Photography (NYC); collection: Asheville Art Museum (NC), publications: American Craft, Our State, WNC, Garden & Gun, and numerous Penland publications.
PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMER SESSION 6
JULY 30–AUGUST 11, 2023
Monty McCutchen
Wet-Plate Collodion
Students in this workshop will learn to use a historic photographic process to interpret the modern world using a visual syntax unlike any other. We’ll work with large-format cameras of various sizes and explore the full gamut of wet-plate collodion positives: tintypes, alumitypes, and ambrotypes. We’ll cover view camera use, mixing chemistry, pouring successful plates, exposure, development, hand coloring, and varnishing. Working with still-life, portraiture, and landscape imagery will give students access to a full range of expression. All levels.
Note: the studio fee for this workshop is estimated at $250 per student.
Studio artist; senior VP at the National Basketball Association, former NBA referee; exhibitions: Soho Photo (NYC), Raid Our Gallery (CT), University of North Carolina-Asheville (NC).
PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMER SESSION 7
AUGUST 13–18, 2023
Karen Navarro
Pushing the Boundaries of Collage
This workshop will introduce materials and techniques to push the boundaries of traditional collage. We’ll investigate the foundations of identity through portraiture collages. Students may work with their own archive or found images. The workshop will cover cut-and-paste techniques, digital manipulation and printing, painterly processes, and image appropriation. Materials will be provided, and students are also encouraged to bring their own collections of ephemera: photographs, magazines, wallpaper, cardboard, fabric scraps, etc. All levels.
Studio artist; exhibitions: Contemporary Art Museum Houston (TX), Artpace San Antonio (TX), FAR Center for Contemporary Arts (IN), Big Medium (TX), Klompching Gallery (NY), Holocaust Museum Houston (TX), Houston Center for Photography (TX); representation: Foto Relevance (TX); publications: ARTnews, The Guardian, Observer, Rolling Stone Italia, Photo Vogue Festival Italia.
PHOTO FALL SHORT SESSION
SEPTEMBER 24 – 29, 2023 (four studio days)
Dan Estabrook
The Handmade Negative
This short session will introduce two methods for making photographic negatives, both of which predate the advent of film: the calotype paper negative and the wet-plate collodion glass negative. Working with raw chemistry and simple materials, students will make photographic negatives suitable for printing with almost any process. While we work, we’ll discuss the history and syntax of each process: how the method for making the negative affects the images created with it. Bring your own props and costumes if you wish, or venture out into the beautiful North Carolina landscape. Cameras will be available in the studio. All levels.
Studio artist, visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute (NYC), frequent Penland instructor since 1994; exhibitions: Catherine Edelman Gallery (Chicago), Daniel Cooney Gallery (NYC), Wilson Museum (VA), Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art (SC); recent projects include a handmade artist book project in collaboration with Nathan Carter, published by Threestart Books (Paris).
We are currently accepting scholarship applications for this workshop.
Regular enrollment will begin on May 1.
PHOTO FALL WEEKEND SESSION
October 20–22, 2023
Betsy DeWitt
Chemistry and Cloth
This workshop will meld the worlds of photography and textiles by using the cyanotype process to make prints on cloth. We’ll generate images using photograms (a cameraless process) and digital negatives, mix cyanotype chemistry, coat the fabric, then expose and develop our images. Once we have our blue beauties on fabric, we’ll cover simple sewing, embroidery, and fabric manipulation techniques to alter and embellish them. This workshop will give students a photo process and textile techniques they can practice in their own homes. All levels. Photography studio.
Former photo/drawing and painting studio coordinator at Penland; exhibitions: Turchin Center for the Visual Arts (NC), Asheville Area Arts Council (NC), Vermont Center for Photography, Soho Photo Gallery (NYC), Rebus Works (NC), Leeds Gallery at Earlham College (IN), St. Andrews Art Gallery (TN).
Enrollment for this workshop will begin on May 1.
