Rearranging the Self

Portrait Laboratory

Inherent in the exchange between photographer and subject is an agreement to enter a shared space, as well as a negotiation between seeing and being seen, between maker and subject.

This workshop approaches portrait-making as a laboratory for experimentation, attention, and discovery. We will consider how an individual comes into view through a single image or across a sequence of photographs: through gesture, idiosyncrasy, contradiction, and subtle shifts in the way someone inhabits their body and surroundings. A single photograph may offer a concentrated, ambiguous encounter; a sequence can gather repetitions and revelations, constructing a more expansive, open-ended study of an individual, particularly across the pages of a book.

We will work with two distinct approaches: the deliberate, extended encounter of the large-format portrait, in which the camera, tripod, and dark cloth establish a slower pace of making; and the more immediate, responsive experience of the handheld camera. Each establishes different conditions of attention and shapes the relationship between photographer and subject, as well as the possibilities of the resulting images.

Throughout, we will return to the relationship between seeing another person and examining ourselves as observers. What happens when we alter our perceptions and our position, rather than direct the subject? How can we align ourselves with a subject through shared vulnerability? What must we reconsider in ourselves for a different kind of portrait to become possible?

The workshop will take place in Belluno, in Italy’s Veneto region, at the foothills of the Dolomites, approximately two hours from Venice. Workshop activities will be based at Colombera House, a traditional three-story Italian home surrounded by gardens.