Creating Environmental Portraits That Tell Powerful Stories
© Suzanne McIntire | StrudelmediaLive student
Creating Environmental Portraits That Tell Powerful Stories
© Leeza Gavronsky | StrudelmediaLive student
Creating Environmental Portraits That Tell Powerful Stories
© Kirsten Murphy | StrudelmediaLive student
ONLINE COURSE

Creating Environmental Portraits That Tell Powerful Stories

Interested in this class? Email us and we'll notify you next time it runs.

Ideally, a portrait should reveal the essence of who a person is — and one of the most effective approaches to making this happen is to photograph your subject in their own environment. In this class you’ll learn how to tell stories about people by photographing them in their own environments — their neighborhood or home, indoors or outdoors — and how to incorporate space to reveal intimate details.

Delve into environmental portraiture and learn ways to make your subjects feel comfortable, so that your images both illuminate their personalities and engage the viewer on a deeper level. We’ll examine the history of the environmental portrait and discuss the importance of collaborating with your subjects. Work by a selection of contemporary photographers, including those who combine environmental portraits with a documentary-style project, will be presented.


 
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)
We just returned from a week away and found my zine waiting for me! I love it! Many thanks to you both and especially Edward for your time, expertise and patience as I began to learn InDesign. I am grateful and appreciative!
—Lisa (New York)
I am a huge fan of live online photography classes, having participated in a dozen since 2014! Through inspiring and encouraging critique from instructors and discussion with other students, I have seen my own work and that of others grow, focus and refine. Another benefit of these classes is the opportunity to meet and interact with others, near and far, who, like myself, are not able to participate in a New York City classroom. I have enjoyed Anja's classes so very much; her expertise is impressive, her enthusiasm contagious!
—Lisa (New York City)


Anja Hitzenberger
Anja Hitzenberger

Anja Hitzenberger is a photographer, filmmaker, consultant, and educator. She is the founder of StrudelmediaLive, an educational platform that offers live online photography classes and more to people around the world. Anja studied in the Creative Practice full-time program at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York City, and has been on the faculty there since 2009. She is dedicated to working with people from different cultures across the globe.

Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows, film festivals, and on theater stages throughout Europe, the United States, South America, and Asia. Her photography has been published internationally and is a part of both private and institutional collections, including the International Center of Photography. She has received numerous artistic grants and has been awarded residencies in Rome, Paris, Warsaw, Beijing, and Tainan (Taiwan). A focus of her activities has been working with live performance, including producing a multimedia piece that toured in New York City, Austria, and Korea.

Anja has been teaching live online photography classes since 2015, as well as in-person workshops at organizations in New York, Europe, China, and Taiwan, including C/O Berlin, Three Shadows (Beijing), and FJUM (Forum for Journalism and Media – Vienna). Originally from Salzburg, Austria, she divides her time between New York and Vienna.

Anja teaches visual storytelling, environmental portraits, critique groups, and how movies can inspire your photography for StrudelmediaLive.