The Therapeutic Camera

A Creative Workshop offered through the Center for Photographic Arts, Carmel CA
taught by Professor Willie Osterman.

The concept of the therapeutic camera is needed now more than ever in our society. When there is so much cultural pressure surrounding us it is essential that we listen to our own unique voice to give form to our ideas and guide us on its evolution.

Photographers use the camera as a device that records forever the things ones’ eyes see for only a moment and in this age of cell-phone photography we are recording our surroundings more than ever. This workshop will look at the use of the camera (regardless of size) as a tool of therapy. We photograph to record what we see, how we feel, where we were (physically and psychologically) and what we have done.

Sometimes the person behind the camera does not realize how much those created images tell about themselves. Through exercises and discussions the participants will begin to realize how therapeutic the camera can be and how the work created tells the maker so much about themselves.

Additional Information

This workshop will offer exercises that will allow the participant a unique view into the world of image making that will change the way they think about how they work.

Possible exercises for the workshop include:
-Pass’ the Camera
-Focus and Draw
-Pose Questions Evolved into Useful Answers
-Follow the Thread – one question evolves to another avenue of useful answers.
(i.e. curiosity)
-The Visual Journal/Sketch Book
-Word/Experience Writing
-Photo by Concession
-The Childhood Story
-The Morning ritual
-The Ritual of Being
-The simple drawing

Discussion Topics

-Photographic tenses: Past, Present & Future
-On developing an experiential strategy
-The Nine step process of creativity
-Use of the journal as a creative tool
-You do not see what is in front of you, you see who you are
-The importance of editing
-Process versus Product: Ritual versus Ego
-The importance of Creativity, or The Creative Life
-Personal versus cultural values (and expressing them)
-Creative Meditation
-The sacred is everywhere
-Technical Implications
-Bibliography
-Personal Expressive Vs Commercial Expression (or surviving as an artist)
-Use of language (verbal or visual)
-(Re)defining your understanding of the concept of Visualization

Biography

Willie Osterman earned a BFA and MFA in photography and is a professor and chair of Fine Art Photography at Rochester Institute of Technology. He has worked as a contract photographer for the Eastman Kodak Company.

His publication Déjà View: A Cultural Re-Photographic Survey of Bologna, Italy in its second edition is now out of print.

During his sabbatical for the year of 2010 he received a Fulbright Scholars Award to develop a Masters Degree program and teach at the Academy of the Dramatic Arts, University of Zagreb, Croatia. He has had over eighty exhibitions in the US, Italy, Turkey, Austria, China and Croatia.

His work is included, among others, in the collections of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the University of New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Alinari Photographic Archive in Florence, Italy.
To learn more about Willie Osterman please visit his site at Willie Osterman .

We expect this class will fill up quickly. Please register  with the CPA by clicking on the button below.

Date: April 15, 2018
Morning Session: 9 to 12
Lunch: 12 to 1:30
Afternoon Session: 1:30 to 4:30
Tuition : 220.00 *
Location: Center for Photographic Art
Address: Sunset Center Carmel , CA 93921
(831) 625-5181

*
The fee includes: A nice breakfast spread, and beverages at 9 am before the workshop starts .
Lunch and beverages that participants can enjoy on the CPA patio during the lunch break.

Banner image  © J.Rosenthal