VNB Fine Art Photo Workshops - Landscapes in Medium & Large Format Photography February 4, 2012

This production-intensive workshop focuses on medium and large format film photography in relation to the broad historical notion of landscape in the visual arts. The more cumbersome, and allegedly “slower” gear required to work in this course often demands greater photographic previsualization and conceptual clarification in order to achieve its intended photographic results. That alone, and the more static, impersonal viewpoint it features, makes it a favorite tool to explore landscape photography.
As imagemakers we all are familiar with the elongated format of vision Painting has long established to depict natural or pastoral scenes. Indeed 19th century pictorialist photographers embarking on the naturalist crusade against early industrialization mimicked it for 30 years, and eventually fell victim to the great idealism of the time. Nowadays one often talks of urban, manmade, social or even digital landscapes. With environmental issues now glaringly standing -mostly untouched- on the political table, much confusion remains between the two estranged notions of environment and nature. Is ecology more about one than the other? Can one exist without the other? Are they necessarily co-defined in conceptual opposition to each other? All these questions and many others will be debated through presentations, discussions and critique sessions during this workshop.
Moreover each participating photographer will develop his/her own reappropriation of a carefully thought out Landscape definition through a tightly edited 5-piece portfolio. May its format be borrowed from European Renaissance Art or the 1960s’ New Topographics movement, the many understandings and interpretations of the term are all up for grabs!

Official Website: http://vnbphoto.com/workshops