Every Wednesday, September 17 – November 19, 2025
Returning for the second year, artist Adrianna Ault leads this hands-on 10-week class hosted by CPW in Kingston, NY. Participants will meet weekly to explore the visual and conceptual relationships going on in their work as they build towards a book “dummy”. The class will include close examinations of contemporary photography and art works, critical readings, and intensive critiques. Participants are encouraged to have work that they are looking to develop or shape into a future book project.
By the end of the class, participants will have refined a body of work in the form of a book dummy, enriched by peer feedback and enhanced by a deeper understanding of the narrative power of images. Additionally, participants will become familiar with CPW’s Digital Media Lab equipment and new digital book press.
Class Highlights:
- Inspiration and Application: Bring and discuss examples that inspire you. Learn to incorporate these inspirations into your own work through various methods and prompts.
- Critique Sessions: Present your body of work for class critique. Engage in discussions to uncover the underlying themes of your work.
- Sequencing and Sketching: Experiment with image sequencing, notebook sketches, and layout designs to craft compelling visual narratives.
- Field Visits: Photobook Collection and Studio Visit. Bard Library.
- Material Exploration: Discover different papers, covers, materials, and printing techniques, including tip-ins on film and silver gelatin.
- Finalizing Your Work: Decide on the final sequence, cover, back, and text for your project. Create maquettes to visualize your work.
- Guest Speakers: Benefit from insights provided by guest speakers, both in-person and online.
DURATION: September 17 – November 19, 2025
WHEN: Every Wednesday, 6-9pm.
WHERE: 25 Dederick Street, Kingston, NY.
MAXIMUM ENROLLMENT: 6
TUITION: $1,150
CPW MEMBER TUITION: $1,000
This class is now sold out. Please email nicole@cpw.org if you’d like to be added to a waiting list.
Please read our full class policies here.
Interested in becoming a member to receive discounts? Click here.
Hear from the students:
“Adrianna’s photo book class left me feeling like I’d robbed a bank, armed with an absolute wealth of information about the bookmaking process. Her deep knowledge, artistic sensibility, and genuine enthusiasm made each session a joy to attend. Despite our varied experience levels, she offered thoughtful, individualized care and created a learning environment that felt inclusive and inspiring. Highly recommend her classes!” – Carla
“It was kind of amazing the way Adrianna taught it. She inspired me, and taught me to look deeper into the meaning of my photographs and to tell a story. I mean the stories are there already, but she had a way of deconstructing the linear thought process to tell a story with a more elegant and poetic structure. ( I was told I need more poetry in my life). I was completely clueless and little defensive at the beginning but I understand now.” – Chris
“As the instructor of the photobook class I found Adrianna’s uniquely personable style of interaction with each of us to be quite illuminating as it opened us up to possibilities we had never dreamed of – as we questioned our particular motives in creating the work.” – Nancy
“My experience with Adrianna’s class was an unexpected deep dive into the world of photo-books. She shares her extensive knowledge and real world experience readily which as a seasoned photographer was virtually unknown to me as an art form in and of itself. She structured the class in an organized way and at a pace that kept me fully engaged, peeling back the many layers of making ones way to, through and out of a photo book making project.” – Dana
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
Adrianna Ault (b.1972) is an American photographer raised in New Orleans, LA. Adrianna graduated with a BA in photography from Warren Wilson College and holds an MFA degree in photography from Hartford University’s International Photography Program. In 2017, she collaborated with Tim Carpenter, Raymond Meeks, and Brad Zellar on Township (published by TIS), a photobook centered around the auction of her family farm in the rural Midwest. In 2018, Township was nominated for the distinguished Kassel Fotobook Award. In 2021, Adrianna was awarded the New York Foundation for the Arts JGS Fellowship for Photography. Adrianna’s first monograph, Levee, was published by VOID, in November 2023. This photographic work is a personal project that encompasses the process of grief while raising her young daughters. In addition to making work for publication, she has taught internationally and in the United States. Adrianna’s work has been exhibited in the United States at Casemore Gallery (San Francisco, CA), NYCSPC Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Prairie Gallery (Charlotte, NC) and exhibited internationally at Paris Photo. In 2024, a solo exhibition of her photographs from Levee was held at the Center for Photography Woodstock in Kingston, NY. Adrianna lives and works in the Hudson Valley, New York with her two teenage daughters and beloved dog.