This in-person weekend workshop in New York City is an inquiry into portraiture as a form of seeing rather than a process of making. Moving beyond likeness, technique, or performance, we’ll examine what it means to render presence — how light, restraint, and attention can shape an image that endures. Through guided observation and deliberate image-making, students will refine their relationship to their subject, and their own intent. Emphasis is placed on craft, editing, and the subtle decisions that separate a deep and expressive portrait from a merely successful one.

Along with critique, this daylight workshop will include presentations on equipment and settings, light modifiers and techniques, working with daylight, posing and collaboration, and more, including the instructor’s Lightroom Classic workflow.

Bring your digital camera and laptop for processing images. For the portrait subjects, we’ll be photographing each other. Studio location is on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; address provided upon registration. We’ll follow up with a 2-hour critique session on Zoom a week later on Sat, May 2, 11am–1pm.