Vision Quest Photo Workshops

Zen and the Art of Photography

Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, New York, with Doug Beasley, July 18 – 19, 2009

Hands with Leaf, Breitenbush, Oregon

Revitalize your photography while exploring your relationship to your subject, your camera and yourself. Through photo exercises, assignments and daily field trips participants will learn to deepen their visual awareness and self expression while clarifying their approach, making their image making both more personal and more meaningful.

This workshop provides a unique opportunity to rethink our expectations of what it means to ‘see’. We will work on cultivating simplicity and making more powerful photographs, supporting the notion that a photograph is not ‘taken’ but made. We become better photographers by becoming more in touch with our inner selves and then use that awareness to deepen our connection with our subject, whether it’s a person, place, or thing.

This is a challenging invitation to redefine not only what is personally suitable subject matter but your whole approach to photography. Inspiration will be sparked by a balance or conversation, meditation, readings, poetry, or whatever means necessary. Bring your camera and plenty of film or extra memory cards because most of the day you will be working on photographic exercises and assignments to facilitate both internal and external experience and growth.

This is the perfect workshop if you are looking to take your photography to a deper more personal level or if you want to try an abbreviated version of Doug’s popular week long seminar on “Zen and the Art of Photography’. Besides it’s natural beauty, Woodstock, NY has a long history as a thriving artist’s community and the Center for Photography at Woodstock is one of the country’s leading photo centers.

See some student photography from Vision Quest Photo Workshops.

Who Should Attend:

While participants must have a working knowledge of their camera, the creative process of image making will be emphasized over the mechanics of camera use. Both digital and film, in all formats, welcome. Open to all levels of experience but better suited to those looking to expand their creativity and vision.

Which Zen workshop is right for me?