Telling Stories: Defining and Developing Your Documentary Photo Project
WITH BRIAN FINKE
LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED
LIMITED TO 8 STUDENTS
ABOUT THE CLASS
Are you interested in telling a story through documentary photography but are feeling stuck and uncertain about how to develop your project? Would you like to better understand the steps to execute a documentary project, from coming up with an idea to exhibiting the work and publishing a photo book? Do you want guidance on how to earn your subjects’ trust so your work can go beyond the superficial? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Telling Stories: Defining and Developing your Documentary Photography Project with Brian Finke is the course for you!
This online workshop will focus on developing a long-term documentary photography project. Brian will critique your work, offering insights into your concept and images as well as practical strategies to help you build a unique and meaningful narrative. Brian will also discuss methods for structuring your project, as well as how to set ambitious but realistic goals as you progress towards exhibiting the project and/or publishing a book. The class will cover the history of documentary practice and how it continues to evolve in the 21st Century. Best of all, you will have an extended conversation with Brian, a highly accomplished visual storyteller with more than two decades of experience and six published books, including the recently released Backyard Fights (2022, Hat and Beard Press).
This 6-session course will meet from 1-4pm EST every other Saturday between February 4 – April 15th. A discounted one-to-one portfolio review with Brian is available as an add-on.
WHO SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE
This course is meant for intermediate and advanced photographers who are working on a documentary photography project or have project ideas in mind that they can readily begin to photograph throughout the classes.
Brian Finke's visual cultural commentary focuses on authenticity and the absurdity of everyday life and the range of human behavior. A stylized documentarian and trained photojournalist, Finke’s honesty and intimacy when capturing subjects strikes at the core of contemporary life, with a uniquely American point of context and graphic sensibility.
Often with boundary pushing subject matter, Finke challenges the viewer to confront what is often right in front of them, with an almost surreal understanding of immediacy, time, and place. From street photography to commercial portraiture to fashion editorials, His immersion in culture-at-large creates imagery that is deeply tied to the political and emotional undertones of the modern world.
A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Finke received a BFA in photography. He is the author of several books, and his first monograph, 2, 4, 6, 8, (2003), was named one of the best photography books by American Photo magazine. His work is in nine museum collections in the U.S. and abroad, and he regularly shoots for editorial clients like National Geographic, M magazine, and The New York Times.