Beyond the Gates Fund
Nancy Borowick, Summer 2005
Click here for Nancy Borowick's Ann of Camen
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The Beyond the Gates Fund is available to students to enable them to utilize opportunities to study studio and visual arts outside Union College. The fund is supported by a generous donation from an alumni who wishes to remain anonymous.
A one-week workshop for photographers ready to explore both traditional and non-traditional approaches to photographing people. Instructor(s): Andrea Modica “In this workshop we will investigate historical, contemporary fine art and editorial portraiture with an emphasis on interpretation and creating a sense of personal vision. During the week we will discuss the use of narrative, aesthetics and psychological approaches as well as the emotional aspects of the portrait. The goal of this workshop is to inspire and help participants develop a natural way of working with their subjects to create a sense of personal style in their work. Andrea will lead students from "first impressions" to translating their initial feelings into a creative expression. She will cover topics such as approaching subjects and establishing a rapport to forming a collaboration between the subject and the photographer, which is both intuitive and spontaneous. Andrea will encourage students to capture the essence of their subjects while exploring their imaginations and senses to create more intuitive portraits. There will be field trips and lectures, with daily reviews of the work made during the week. Your subjects will include class-mates, strangers on the street, faculty and staff members.. Andrea will also review student portfolios on an individual basis. Andrea will include discussions on topics relating to the use of portraits in publications and exhibits and address the legal and ethical issues. “ -The Maine Photographic Workshops Nancy
Borowick 07’ The workshop I attended, Intuitive Portraits, by the internationally acclaimed photographer Andrea Modica at the Maine Photographic Workshop was a week of learning filled with new people, new ideas, new techniques as well as other surprises. Inside of the classroom, as well as outside, we “students” not only learned from our professor, we learned a lot from each other. Most of the participants were older professional photographers. I was the only college student, still exploring what direction I would take in my own photography. It was very helpful to hear experiences from others who have been working professionally. The professor, Andrea Modica, treated me as an equal, holding me up to the same standards and criteria as the other students; we did all apply to get into the same program. From the first day, Professor Modica talked about the workshop atmosphere and spoke of her pleasure in the sense of “like mindedness” among photographers and how important it is to be around others who share similar interests and talents. The project for our workshop was a lot more independent that I had thought it would be. We were instructed to go into the surrounding towns and find one person who would agree to be photographed for five consecutive days. That is a lot to ask of a complete stranger, but after being sent around from store to store, I was eventually pointed in the direction of a small bookstore, The Owl and the Turtle, and to its front desk clerk, Ann Morris, age 63. She agreed to let me shadow her at her work as well as at her home. The assignment had few guidelines so we were left with our imaginations and people skills to capture as much as we could from a subject we knew nothing about. Photography is the kind of art where you can really learn something about your subject just by being in their presence. Besides having to finish two rolls of black and white film by five in the afternoon each day, there were no other time constraints, so we were free to take lots of time to get to know our subjects and play around with portraits. I lucked out and my subject Ann lived in a beautiful area (through all of Maine is amazing), where she brought me to many different locations so the environments in my photos varied some. By the end of the week, I not only learned about photojournalism, having to approach and communicate with a complete stranger I experienced something that I would have never done on my own. When we met as a class everyday, we did group critiques which were made up of a large range of opinions and perspectives, and it never felt repetitive because everyone’s work had different styles and techniques. Working on my personal style in my photography, learning the courage to connect with someone I did not know, being exposed to people with similar interests and from all different places and facets of life were things that I am truly grateful for. I left enlightened and inspired. - Nancy Borowick 07’ |