| Finding Intimacy

Join Elinor Carucci in Finding Intimacy, a photography workshop looking and photographing inward: into our own lives, our bodies and intimate experiences, into strangers, what we know and don’t know, the world around us.

Intimacy can be found everywhere. We can look inward into our own lives, our bodies, our intimate experiences, or those of our family and friends. We can find intimacy in the streets, on the bus or train, in a bar or park. We can find intimacy in landscapes and urbanscapes, in how a place feels, in how we feel or think, on any given day, in any given place.

Many artists find that their best work is inspired by the personal physical or mental spaces in which they themselves experience, or they can find a way to reach the depth of other people’s lives and stories. Many artists find their inspiration in photographing people and/or places they don’t know. By photographing the people and places with whom they are intimately acquainted, or by making themselves get to levels of intimacy with strangers, they are able to communicate a more profound level of understanding through their images.

This workshop enables students to enhance their vision and style while delving deeper into a more personal and intimate place, to the emotions and nuances of their lives and what is around them. This course will aim to bring more depth to any experience that the artist encounters. This workshop will encourage students to find intimacy and use it to investigate, comment on, and reveal the spaces and people around them.

During this intensive 5-day workshop, participants will be guided in the conception and realization of making a photo project intimate. Students will be encouraged to break the boundaries between themselves and their subjects as they work on their own projects.

Students’ portfolios will be discussed at the beginning of the workshop, and each student will receive personalized feedback and suggestions for improvement.

The work of photographers such as Andrea Modica, Jen Davis, Richard Billingham, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Emmet Gowin, Nan Goldin, Larry Sultan, Leigh Ledare, Michael Ackerman, Tierney Gearon, and others will be shown and inform class discussions, deconstructing a variety of examples to further the student’s own work.

Elinor will also talk about all the aspects of her work and the industry, the intimacy in her personal work, how her intimate approach to photography led her to editorial and commercial jobs, and how she applies her style to those projects. She will share her view on teaching, working with galleries, clients, and more, for a truly intense and complete workshop experience.

What to bring

Students should bring their camera gear and their laptop with their chosen software for editing. Students may bring lighting if they would prefer and are comfortable with their own equipment. Students should also bring one or more bodies of work that can serve as a starting point to receive feedback.

All Images copyright Elinor Carucci.