Tanya Marcuse : The Body (part 2)

Here are a bunch of the images I took when Nikki and I finally got time to shoot the models...we only had about 45 minutes...30 with the guys and 15 with the girls. It was really exciting to have images to work on that really felt like my own art, not just documentation of the workshops! I tried to really narrow down to those that best showed what we did and those that I like the most...I don't want to overwhelm you all!

Here are some images that I tried to shoot in accordance with the workshop, examining the body. It was definitely outside of my norm and different from the way I'm used to looking at things (I think?):








A lot of the images that we looked at as historical examples and inspiration seemed to focus on muscles, bone structure, and the details of the body that could easily be overlooked. The rest of these are more like what I was used to shooting...

One of our models was Paul; a regular CPW model and yogi (someone who practices yoga). He was incredibly willing to do whatever the students asked...whether that meant climbing up in to branches or suspending himself between two trunks. He was also really interested in seeing the photos each student took, so he (along with Erica) came to our critique on Sunday.

I'm not sure which one I prefer...black & white or color? paul in focus or the envelope in focus?

Miss Nikki in action...

Paul wanted to show us his crazy yoga skills...he was able to hold this pose as long as we needed.

The model here with Paul is Nick. We didn't get any individual time with him, but at the end of our time with Paul, the student shooting Nick asked if we would mind doing a few of them together.



After the day of shooting was 'technically' over, Nikki and I got a quick 15 minutes to shoot the very gracious Amanda and Erica. We began one-on-one and then with both...

(again, b&w or color?)

When it comes to editing, I'm generally pretty liberal - for some reason I can't decide which I like more between this one above & the one below...

Tanya Marcuse : The Body (part 1)

Tanya Marcuse, an internationally exhibited photographer whose work centers on the body and historical objects related to it, taught this weekend’s workshop. She received her MFA from Yale and soon after was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship. Despite the fact that she has many other fellowships and publications under her belt, she is one of the most personable and down to earth artists I’ve met. Kelsea and I had an incredibly honest conversation with her at the Len Prince and Jesse Mann opening at Photosensualis. She gave us some really great advice about what it means to be a female artist in today’s world. We discussed the difference between having a career, having a life, and having both.

This was my first time dealing with nude models in photography…so I was a bit unsure about the weekend. Tanya made everything very comfortable and interesting. I haven’t ever truly had an interest in photographing nudes, but I now appreciate and understand many aspects of the theory and symbolism behind it. We had some good conversations about how a small piece of clothing can sometimes mean more than none, how environment greatly affects the image, and how to approach a model. Tanya was a really great teacher.

Because I shot so many images from this weekend, I thought I would post them in two separate posts...1 with my documentation of the students and locations and 1 with the images I shot as a workshop participant. The workshop was structured so that we spent the morning at CPW going over student work and the afternoon on location shooting a handful of different models. The houses we went to were really wonderful, one with an amazing yard and another with an inside that you could photograph for years without capturing it all…

The group discussing their approach before we began shooting

Tanya advising Michael on his shot

Ray and our wonderful model, Amanda

Apparently I wasn’t able to deal with the nudes yet…so I bonded with the bunny =)

And Liz (my boss!) bonded with Bella

The second day we went to a house with an unbelievable amount of character. I admit, I abandoned my intern duties for a little bit in order to capture some of the uniqueness about it…

The owners had an incredible amount of books...there were literally rooms with every wall lined with full bookshelves...I would love to live there...

So it looks like this is possibly the only true documentation image I have from this day!

This is where I sleep...

I've had a couple requests to see photos of where I live, so here they are!


My house is an old converted barn so it is very open and has lots of character.
The first room is a large screened porch, where I spend lots of time reading...upon entering the house you are met with this door - it is from the original barn :


I haven't gotten a chance to photograph the downstairs quite yet, but I will add photos of those as I get them. Its very open, retaining some of the original layout.
Once you go up the stairs, you have my balcony:


Then a little open area where I keep my photography stuff - sorry, its kinda messy:


If you turn around from there, the little purple stairs lead into my room. On the right is my makeshift closet:


And on the left would be my tiny little bathroom:


Seeing as the walls are slanted, this is the best shot I could get as a broad overview of my room...yep, living out of those white storage bins, a mattress on the floor, and makeshift cardboard box tables:


...and the views from my window:

Elinor Carucci & Alan Rapp : Publishing a Photographic Book

Last weekend’s workshop was packed with information about what goes in to getting your own photography book published. While I am very far from being ready to publish anything, I still took a handful of really great points out of it. This workshop was a good example of something that I never thought I’d be interested in, but still managed to learn a lot from.

Elinor Carucci is an Israeli born photographer, currently based in NYC. She told us an incredibly endearing story of how she went about publishing her first book. After getting her BFA in Jerusalem, she moved to the city with the intention of staying for 3 months in order to get a book published. She made a maquette, which is basically a mock-up book of what you envision for your work, and went around the city trying to get a meeting. After lots of work, she met Alan Rapp of Chronicle Books. He believed in her project and eventually got everything into the works - 8 months later, the book came to fruition. Throughout the weekend, Elinor constantly reminded us that she just needed one person to believe in her (= Alan). The two of them were a perfect balance of technical, professional advice and the heartfelt, emotional journey.

Elinor has been exhibited around the world from NYC to Israel, London to Prague. She is currently living in NYC and teaching at the School of Visual Arts. Her first book, Closer, is a collection of intimate photographs of her and her family in the most honest, emotional way. After her Saturday night lecture, the other interns and I all agreed that her raw honesty is really appreciated. Her photographs prove that she is open about everything that happens in her life. When asked “how far is too far?” she responded saying for her nothing is too far. If it is real, how can it be too much?




A lot of the workshop was spent going over very specific questions about publishing. This group was a little more advanced and wanted to know more detailed answers than broad questions. One of the more interesting parts to me was when Alan went over the different parts involved in the proposal to a publisher. In order to propose your idea, you need to know a lot about the business and competition behind your project. It seemed to me as though proposing your idea to a publisher is a similar act to how the publisher will sell your book to the public. Alan has more than 15 years of experience in publishing and has worked with a number of well-known photographers.


We spent part of both days giving everyone a chance to show their work and get specific advice on what might be a good next step. It was really interesting to compare Elinor’s comments on the project concept and quality versus Alan’s advice on ideation for a book.





We also went over a lot of self-publishing options such as blurb, lulu, etc. Alan brought along a lot of examples so we were able to pass around each one and compare print quality, size, paper type, and more.


It was really great to meet Elinor, someone whose work I’ve admired for years, and Alan, someone with a lot of experience and valuable real world advice. They were very relaxed and excited about how well the workshop went. Even though I might have to hold on to this information for years until it is personally useful, it was still a great weekend.