Tag: louisville photo biennial

A look back at my recent photo workshop with the Louisville Photo Biennial

This past fall I had the opportunity to teach an 8 week digital photography course, geared to 10-15 years olds at Baxter Community Center in downtown Louisville with the Louisville Photo Biennial.  This photo course was taken from, and expanded upon, the original 1-day, 5-hour workshop, I led for the Louisville Photo Biennial at 5 different community centers last fall.

Oh look…my favorite thing ever…having students take my picture…NOT!  Photo by Amira Karaoud

One of those 5 workshops was at Baxter Community Center, and I was really excited to have three prior students from that class return to work with me again this fall!  I also loved the idea of breaking down the initial one day workshop into a consecutive 8 week program, where I could really get to know the students and potentially have far greater impact on their interest in photography.

Most classes began with looking at photo books. This was a source of inspiration to me in my arts education and was a great intro to the topic we covered that day. Photo by Amira Karaoud.

With a new lesson introduced each week I also addressed the fundamentals of strong photo composition.  Having this longer session enabled us to really dive into the numerous creative options of the Nikon Coolpix S7000 camera.

 

 

And like last fall, we brought in photo printers for making images of the work created.  This is always a huge hit.  We all take photographs, but very few are ever printed anymore.  And just like the darkroom, there is a sense of magic when you see your image coming to life…and in this case, out of the printer.  This process also allowed them to review the images they have created and select the most worthy of being printed.

    

Probably the most memorable class was our Louisville Belvedere field trip.  It was a mid October day when the air is still warm and the light is just right late in the day!  No one wanted to leave and you can’t beat that!

 

 

The 8 week course ended with a pizza party and exhibition of work created. Students selected their best images for exhibition and arranged them themselves.  The exhibition reception was well attended by members of the community and the students were very proud of their work!

   

 

 

Many thanks to my awesome photography assistant Amira Karaoud!  She was great at helping keep the students on track and it was wonderful to have another person offer some one on one assistance to them!  Check out her website…she’s an amazing photographer!!

Photo assistant Amira Karaoud looking super cool…ummm, because she is!  Photo by Tre Walker.

 

As I look back on this experience, my biggest take away is the pure joy these students expressed each week.  Incredibly grateful for the Louisville Photo Biennial and their mission to bring photographic education to those in underserved communities.

~jz

 

An Overview of LPB workshops (mostly) in Photographs

This fall, I had the pleasure of teaching an introduction to digital photography workshop with the Louisville Photo Biennial. The LPB received a Metro External Agency grant enabling educational programming opportunities to 5 underserved community centers in the Louisville Metro area.  By the end of the 5th workshop, we educated 40 participants, that ranged in age from 9-18 years, many of whom were quite inspired by the photographic medium, which is really exciting to witness!!  Below is an overview mostly in photographs.

 

 

 

A fun element to this workshop was that students made prints of their best work.  The following are images that students deemed print worthy.

 

I loved how candid most students felt in front of the camera!  All kinds of poses were struck during these sessions.

 

 

In addition to photographing one another, many of the participants loved photographing the staff at the community centers.  Big thanks to them for all their help during the workshops!!

 

For it’s price, ease of use and creative options, the Nikon Coolpix S7000 was a great camera to teach an intro to digital photo class!  Mirror mode and Selective Color were two creative modes that got a lot of milage in this series of workshops.

 

 

I could not have done all of this without the help of some amazing volunteers.  I thank you immensely for giving up your time to assist me during these workshops.  Each one was better because of you!!

 

And BIG thanks to this man, Paul Paletti!   An event that started in 1999 with 4 participating galleries, the Louisville Photo Biennial has since grown to encompass 65 exhibitions of work by contemporary photographers.  None of this would have been achieved without Paul’s dedicated coordination of the event since 2003.  He even brought lunch to each workshop!  Thank you Paul!

 

 

And no story about a photo workshop is complete without some self-timed group photos!

 

Big shout out to Murphy’s Camera on Bardstown Road!  They were our one stop shop for all cameras, printers, inks and accessories used in the workshops.  The staff is super friendly and extremely helpful!!  Please support this awesome local business for all your photographic needs!

So grateful for this opportunity!  Thanks for reading.

~jz

 

Photography Since the Millennium Opening Reception Oct 16

‘In recent years, and with increasing speed, the art form of photography has expanded to include work that is no longer bound by the expectation to capture and depict reality. Guest curated by C.J. Pressma, this exhibit is filled with artwork by artists who use photography – and/or photographic elements – to express highly personal, creative visions.’  via Carnegie Center for Art & History website

Super excited to have work in the Photography Since the Millennium exhibition at the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany!!  Thank you C.J. Pressma for thinking enough of my work to invite my participation!  In conjunction with the Louisville Photo Biennial, this exhibit will be on display from October 9th, 2015 through January 9th, 2016.  Join me at the opening reception on Friday October 16th from 6 -8pm.

The Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany is open from Tuesday through Saturday 10am-5:30pm.