MASTER CLASS/MENTOR SERIES (ONGOING)

Where Do I Go From Here?
The purpose of the winter/spring Master Class/Mentor series is career development with the creative process at the forefront. Brought together are dedicated participants from all walks of life to create a support system with continuous contact. The group meets one full day a month in New York City to present and discuss current work. This six-month (or longer) dialogue concerns vision, creativity, and experimentation. Our main focus will be on your work and how it can be refined to best reflect your vision and sensibilities. We will address such issues as blocks, motivation, marketing and the development of ideas. For information, contact Ernestine Ruben at ewrphoto@aol.com

"I've had the great privilege of being involved in workshops led by Ernestine Ruben. Her dynamics, boundless energy and enthusiasm create a productive work-shop environment. Ernestine's strong belief in the potential of the individual student and her dedication to photography as an art form have not only inspired me but have given direction to my artistic development. Her love of art and teaching have combined to give me unforgettably rewarding experiences."
Bill Metcalf 2003

GENERAL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

WORKSHOP GOALS:
A productive workshop is when obvious and hidden pieces are carefully connected producing the most benefit to the individual as well as to the group. These include technical knowledge, aesthetic awareness, intellectual curiosity, and personal honesty. This means reaching into given "baggage", reworking the contents, and creating new pathways. This is done by mutually identifying strengths and weaknesses, establishing problems, planning their resolution through creative approaches to photography.

DURATION:
1-14 days; all at one time or split into two parts allowing time for preparation in between

GROUP CLASSES:
2-15 people

PRIVATE CLASS:
Call or write for information

1. Changing Environments in Photography: Inner and Outer Environments
As our external environments change our internal environments change and vice versa. How do we keep up? What happens to our ideas? This workshop concentrates on our states of mind and creativity in forever changing environments. How is all of this expressed using photography? It will appeal to the person who has little time, or travels a lot, or is interested in opening up new channels. The subjects will vary as the problems arise. It is our aim to breathe new life into our processes and products.

2. Detours in Photography
Students will work under Ruben's direction to break new ground with their image-making techniques. As rules are broken, new approaches are developed and discovered to appropriately express new vision. Students will print the images using varying techniques on varying surfaces,including handmade papers. By using these alternative methods, they will be able to explore new dimensions of their creative energies.

3. Perceptions of the Nude
This workshop explores the subject of the nude as a means of revealing and clarifying each participant's individual perceptions of the world (and development as an artist). By examining our philosophical and psychological reactions to the human form we become more sensitive to our own "human-ness" and can frequently break down barriers, releasing new creativity. The nude in photography will be related to other art forms such as painting and sculpture, which have incorporated the human figure in a variety of ways throughout history. The workshop includes extensive photography sessions with models, both indoors and outdoors.

4. New Visions in Photography
This workshop is for all artists at all levels who seek (re)discovery through photography. The human imagination can be stretched and strengthened through a continual motion between risking the unknown and incorporating the given, between failure and progress. And photography is the perfect medium for this because it deals with a given reality and yet today it is so open-ended. In the workshop we will address our humanness and passion in creativity, look at the origin of our ideas, and pinpoint barriers in order to release new energies toward a new project. Appropriate techniques will be developed to express new visions. The workshop will emphasize one-to-one contact.

5. The Photographer: The Human Being
Most photography classes discuss either technique or philosophy. Rarely is the human aspect important. I wish to combine all three. Photography is often clothed in technique. Many people involved in photography forget that there is more. This workshop is a complementary approach toour constant learning which must take place. Do we want to inject ourselves into our work? How do we do it? How do we master techniques enough to transcend it?
Week 1: People Project: Who we are. Self-portraits, personal vision, career development.
Week 2:Ideas: How we think. Ways of finding ideas, choosing ideas, visual organization.
Week 3: Ideas: How we work. Processes, manipulation, applications, etc.
Week 4: Extensions: Where we go. Portfolio preparation, shows, books, performance, experimentation.


For Schedules and details (cost,location etc.) contact Ernestine Ruben

LECTURES
Lectures about such topics as the human body, spirituality in photography, and collaborations between photographers and other artists, can be organized. For more information,contact Ernestine Ruben