Window on Nature
Tanya Marcuse
Saturday, July 15, 2023
(Plus later Zoom meeting, TBD)
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
“Nature must be experienced through feeling.”
––Alexander von Humboldt
How can we use the language of photography both to describe and to change our encounters with the natural world? How can we use vantage point, proximity, framing, and depth of field with both intention and intuition? How can we harness the descriptive power of light? How can we compose scenes or intervene in the landscape in meaningful ways? In this immersive workshop in the field we will explore these questions together. We will spend the day photographing the landscape at a private land preserve in Kingston. Partnering with Ravensbeard, a local raptor organization, we will have the unique opportunity to photograph live owls and other awe-inspiring birds.
The workshop will begin with a slide presentation foregrounding diverse approaches to photographing the natural world. The rest of the day will consist of several guided photographic sessions. We will spend the whole day on the site of the land preserve. Box lunch will be served. Participants will then have several days to edit their work. The group will reconvene via Zoom to review and discuss the results of the day’s work.
What to bring: Your favorite camera, extra charged batteries, lenses, film and/or memory cards. CPW has digital cameras and lenses to loan upon request. Participants should dress appropriately for the weather and the woods. Class involves moderate hiking.
Tanya Marcuse makes large-scale photographs investigating the imperiled natural world in elaborately constructed tableaux. In 2005, she embarked on a three-part, fourteen-year project titled “Fruitless | Fallen | Woven,” which moves from iconic, serial photographs of trees in “Fruitless” to immersive, allegorical works in “Fallen” and “Woven.” Fueled by the Biblical narrative of the Fall from Eden, these related projects use increas-ingly fantastical imagery and more elaborate methods of construction to explore cycles of growth and decay, as well as exploring the dynamic tension between the passage of time and the photographic medium.
Tanya’s photographs are in many collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the George Eastman Museum. Her books include Undergarments and Armor (Nazraeli Press, 2005); Wax Bodies (Nazraeli Press, 2012); Fruitless | Fallen | Woven (Radius Press, 2019); and Ink (Fall Line Press, 2021). The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Peter S. Reed Grant, and MacDowell Fellowships, she currently teaches at Bard College.
Class limit: 10
Tuition: $650 / CPW Members $550
Scholarships are available for tuition assistance. Please email education@cpw.org for details.