Indesign Basics + Beyond the Basics for Books and Zines

As a black-and-white photographer without any art education beyond crayons, I knew I needed to learn color someday. Shala taught me how to think and see in color, so I now seamlessly switch between color and black-and-white based on the emotions I’m trying to convey. She excelled at facilitating our group’s discussions and had terrific links to things we needed to read and look at to help us expand our vision. I am forever grateful for her mentoring and guidance.

—Kevin (New Jersey)

Many thanks to all of you who have accompanied me on my photographic journey with your great knowledge and empathy in the StrudelmediaLive workshops this year — embroidery with Jolanda Drukker Murray, cyanotype with Claudia Cortínez, the class about joy and pathos of everyday life with Allen Frame, and also photography as a pilgrimage with Kat Shannon.

—Barbara (Zurich)

I loved Kat’s class on photography as a pilgrimage. This is one of the most thoughtfully planned and presented classes I’ve ever taken. Kat brings a rich depth of materials, unique assignments, and thoughtful discussions to the classroom, and is exceptional at making conceptual ideas tangible. Kat is a fantastic teacher. She is thoughtful, articulate and poetic. I’ll take anything she teaches.

—Melissa (Chicago)

I loved the embroidery class! Jolanda was a truly inspiring instructor. She provided a perfect mix of teaching/demonstrating specific embroidery stitches, collage techniques, and working with fabric, and commenting on and encouraging student work. I also appreciated her very thorough class notes, illustrated with examples she had shown in class. Jolanda emphasized the thought processes of making art, thinking about the “why” of what we were doing, which was eye-opening and inspiring. Thank you for offering this great class!

—Dorothea (New York City)

I really enjoyed the class! I've been wanting to do embroidery for a while but haven't known where to start. Jolanda did a great job showing us a wide range of techniques and inspirations, and challenged us to create every week. I honestly thought the class was perfect. I plan to continue doing embroidery work on my photos.

—Drew (Minneapolis)

The cyanotype class was super interesting and I liked Claudia's way of sharing very generously her knowledge over a technique she has long been working on; I find it not so common, artists tend to keep their “tricks” for themselves. And I really enjoyed sharing this class with such a wonderful group of people. The challenge was to make us work on something very manual, from a distance and through a video screen and, in my opinion, she succeeded greatly.

—Lara (France)

The cyanotype class of Claudia was really mind blowing for me! Exploring this new printing technique and creating digital negatives has really opened a new window that I want to incorporate in my photographic practise. Claudia has been a very inspiring teacher. She went thoroughly through the process of cyanotype on glass as well as her own practise and work of other contemporary and historical artists using cyanotype printing techniques. I also very much appreciated the attention Claudia gave to our individual projects/ideas, pointing to artworks and ways of working we might find relevant and inspiring.

—Eugenia (Berlin)

Zuzana’s class was one of the best content classes I’ve taken. It showed me a new approach to self portraits (which I’ve enjoyed making for a long time). Her critiques helped to validate my thoughts to move beyond including myself in all of my “self portrait” photos.

—Don (Ohio)

I wanted to thank you for the class and for pushing me toward this new way (at least for me) of working on my personal story/project. I’m really excited to literally dive into it. Thank you for your time and support, your advice has been super helpful.

—Lara (France)

Elizabeth is a wonderfully patient teacher! I am excited to now have an object in my hand that I believe not only reflects my images, but connects and combines them into a story.

—Barbara (Zurich)

This class was spectacular. Liz is spectacular. She is such an organized and patient teacher. I’m so excited to practice and experiment with the techniques she introduced us to.

—Kirsten (Canada)

I loved Lavonne's class on mastering color. She is a selfless, inventive, and no-drama teacher whom I truly appreciated. I have taken many classes in the past and the teacher often wants to be the star … but Lavonne’s approach is to extend to the student a different way of looking at photos via color and, of course, light.

—Pat (Northern New Jersey)

I want to thank you for such an inspiring class. You are a wonderful teacher! You brought to the forefront for me just how essential light is in a taking good photos. You also encouraged me to be experimental and I have got to know my camera better as a result. Best wishes for your upcoming photography projects. I hope you’ll be teaching again before too long.

—Anna (California)

Just a quick note to say that James Prochnik’s “Poems and Pictures” class was fantastic — he is a gifted teacher and image maker. My work experienced a much needed shift during his class and my fellow classmates were equally committed to making new and exciting work. Not only did he introduce us to largely unknown photographers, he was in the trenches with us. His thoughtful critiques are what I imagine MFA students receive at Yale. This class was exactly what I needed, when I needed it. James embodies what StrudelmediaLive is all about: pushing limits to break creative barriers.

—Kirsten (Canada)

Meng’s workshop was beautiful, thank you.

—Sam (Mexico City)

Bryan is an excellent instructor, and it’s been a pleasure to learn from his experience. It is a valuable course, and I have a better starting point for organizing my archive.

—Inbal (New York City)

Bryan is a generous and attentive teacher, and he went to great effort to prepare multiple handouts full of resources. And he also had a nice way of framing the daunting task of getting organized.

—Denise (New York City)

When will Marina Thomé teach her next class? She is wonderful.

—Lisa (New York City)

Marina creates a warm, accepting and encouraging environment and pushes just enough. As a result, each student’s final work was very personal, from the heart.

—Lisa (New York City)

It has been such an inspiring process taking classes with Samantha and Néstor. They’re such dedicated and talented teachers — I owe you both a lot of gratitude.

—MG (Brooklyn)

Thank you Nestor, for a fun and illuminating DIY lighting class. I loved your combined free-wheeling “go for it” approach with the gentle but rigorous critiques. I learned a lot about intentionally “sculpting” with light to create mood and content. I also appreciate your willingness to be vulnerable in showing and talking about your personal work, which meant a lot to me. You created a mini-community of sharing and learning. Muchas gracias!

—Irene (Pennsylvania)

It has been such an inspiring process taking classes with Samantha and Néstor. They’re such dedicated and talented teachers — I owe you both a lot of gratitude.

—MG (Brooklyn)

Samantha is a warm person — thoroughly knowledgeable in photography and in still life in particular. Her enthusiasm is always apparent, and she always points out new directions for her students' photography projects.

—June (New Jersey)

Thank you so much for this fantastic photography journey together! I will definitely miss our image & text class next Monday evening. It has been such a really inspiring course. I learned a lot from all of you and am really grateful for all the precious feedback you gave me about the project. I will keep them in mind while working on the next steps.

—Sara (Rome)

I enjoyed very much the workshop, Marianne is really good, the feedback and her comments helped me a lot in my personal work, I wish I had more classes with her…. this course was a breath of fresh air.

—Lorena (Mexico)

Allan Frame’s class was a truly extraordinary experience! Working in that group was incredibly inspiring, creatively challenging, and so very supportive. I feel like I have taken a huge step into a deeper awareness not only of myself — but of the photographic process as well. Looking forward to the next course.

—Glen (Toronto)

Allen Frame is a treasure — intelligent, deep, perceptive. We’re fortunate that he is on your faculty.

—Lisa D. (Brooklyn)

Thank you for this interesting course — Stefan certainly gave us a lot of information and a lot to think about. I wish the course was even longer!

—Suzette (New York)

This class was really exceptional — Stefan was extremely well-prepared, very thorough and taught with great enthusiasm and care on a university level; great assignments and class critique plus post-class emails. This was on a new level of online learning.

—Lisa (New York City)

Thanks, Kai! The class was an enormous learning experience for me. The arc of my understanding between weeks one and four amazed me. I thank you for sharing your encyclopedic knowledge and your methods and I hope we have the chance to experience another class together soon. I can’t wait to get back in the studio to cut and paste.

—Fran (New York City)

Kai's class was brilliant — he's such a good teacher and I hope he does more classes for you. He was so organized with the content and assignments and he left us with some outstanding resources. Wonderful to have met him and I loved rediscovering Black and White photography. Brought me back to the days as a teen in my parents’ basement, developing my own photos on our washer and dryer!

—Jennifer (Monaco)

Anita's course gave me the opportunity to learn more about photography, and also about myself. She was always so willing to help us and guide us to the best ways of narrating our feelings and thoughts through photography.

—Nanu (Venezuela)

It was probably one of the best classes I’ve taken and I was — and still am — pumped because Anita imparted such a wealth of knowledge on us, I seriously wish it never ended.

—Aniya (Barbados)

Thanks again, Anja and Edward, for a wonderful class — I can certainly say that I got what I was hoping for out of it.

—David (New York)

I loved the class and learned so much — not just InDesign technical stuff, but also design and photography aesthetics… it was awesome!

—Bobby (Washington DC)

I LOVED Gianni’s lighting class. He is extremely nice and an excellent teacher. He is generous with his time, which is greatly appreciated. I loved the size of the class, and the quality/expertise of the teaching. I learned a lot, and I loved the fact it was an international crowd, with people from all over the world. And, I thought the class was reasonably priced. I was sad that the class ended.

—Gabrielle (San Francisco)

The lighting class was excellent. Gianni is both a great photographer and a great teacher. He made what can be a complicated subject understandable. Gianni helped me see where I was making mistakes and helped me understand how to fix them. Thank you so much Anja, and Gianni for this class. I am no longer scared of speedlights, and I feel like I just got a bunch of cool new tools that I can’t wait to try out.

—Deborah (Boston)

I was fortunate enough to take this documentary photography class with Marco Antonio Bello, and have come away with new insights and a much better understanding of what documentary photography is all about. Thank you Marco for your tenacity and inspiration!

—Barbara (New Jersey)

I appreciate how you shared what you had to do to take photos and your whole workflow process. It was kind of like doing an internship with you — getting a real inside look from a person who is shooting for one of the top agencies in the world — without having to wear a bulletproof vest and gas mask.

—Deborah (Boston)

Since I haven't had the opportunity to study photography formally, I needed a course that would help me acquire an awareness of the composition skills I was thinking about unconsciously. Anja helped me improve my observation skills, both explaining the main elements of composition, with reference to the techniques used by other photographers, and through shooting exercises and group critique, which took me, week after week, to intentionally compose the frame in order to develop a narrative.

—Gianluca (Italy)

I've been enjoying all of the courses that I take through StrudelmediaLive. I find them motivating and fun, and I feel part of a community. You are building something wonderful.

—Cristina (Minneapolis)

Lesly is an amazing teacher and human being. She helped me a lot throughout this process of being a new mother. I hope I’ll keep photographing at home for a long-term project, documenting my son’s life and my motherhood experience.

—Cris (Florida)

Lesly's class was great, very inspiring and gave my daily life and family pictures a real purpose. I see the photos in a more artistic way now rather than just being there to document our life and family, and it feels good!

—Lara (France)

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Indesign Basics + Beyond the Basics for Books and Zines

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