LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph

Education Week

Education Week is comprised of four professional and creative courses, three 20-minute portfolio reviews, and the full weekend of the Festival.

About the Structure

Education Week kicks off on June 11th and runs until the end of the Festival on June 15th:

  • Day 1 and 2: Choose 4 of 6 courses on a range of professional and creative topics.
  • Day 3: Choose three 20-minute portfolio review sessions.
  • Registration includes an invitation to the Education Week party.
  • Registration includes a ticket to Tim Laman’s Birds of Paradise: TREES Talk.
  • LOOK3 FESTIVAL PASS IS INCLUDED IN THE EDUCATION WEEK TUITION. The Education Week Festival Pass grants access to all talks, projections, and exhibits from June 13-15: the perfect way to end this intense week of inspiration, collaboration, and creativity.
  • Education Week takes place in the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center at 233 4th St NW, Charlottesville, VA 22903.
  • The Education Week Festival Package (June 11-15) is $795.
  • Cancellation Policy: A full refund, less a $100.00 processing fee, will be given for refund requests made BEFORE April 30, 2013.
    From May 1, 2013 on, no refunds will be given.

Who are the Instructors?

Curate your work across digital platforms with Pamela Chen.
Sustain your project through fundraising with Mary Virginia Swanson.
Master audio and interviewing techniques with Alex Chadwick and Bruce Strong.
Delve into bookmaking with Denise Wolff.
Craft your process and sort through your influences with Todd Hido.
Learn how design firms, magazines, and galleries work with Staci MacKenzie, Jessie Wender, and Sasha Wolf.

Portfolio Reviewers

Elisabeth Biondi, Pamela Chen, Mike Davis, Alexa Dilworth, MaryAnne Golon, David Griffin, David Alan Harvey, Todd Hido, W.M. Hunt, Elizabeth Cheng Krist, Sarah Leen, Staci MacKenzie, Lesley A. Martin, Kathy Moran, Kurt Mutchler, Sadie Quarrier, Gordon Stettinius, Bruce Strong, Mary Virginia Swanson, Scott Thode, Anne Wilkes Tucker, Susan Welchman, Jessie Wender, Sasha Wolf, Denise Wolff, Yukiko Yamagata.

How to Register for Education Week:

  1. Please review courses below, and portfolio reviewers on the following pages.
  2. Fill out our Education Week Schedule Builder Survey to select your classes, instructors, and times.
  3. After you’ve completed your schedule, you will be directed to our ticketing page to purchase your Education Week Pass, then you’re officially signed up!
  4. Email Kate Ringo, Education Coordinator, with any questions.

Please email for further instructions if you are ready to build your Education Week schedule!

Day 1 and Day 2 Courses

On Tuesday, June 11, and Wednesday, June 12, you will attend a morning course and an afternoon course. Please choose two options from each section below, for a total of four classes.

Morning Sessions

 

Sustaining Your Long-Term Photography Projects Through Fundraising and Sponsorship

Mary Virginia Swanson, Creative Consultant, Author, and Educator

© Athena Lonsdale

COURSE DESCRIPTION In this seminar, Mary Virginia Swanson will describe methods to support completion, publication, and exhibition of your photography projects. She will explain different types of monetary grants available through corporate and private foundations, and government agencies.  The value of partnering with a fiscal agent for foundation support, in-kind donations, and sponsorship will be explained. Throughout the seminar, Ms. Swanson will share resources for fundraising and describe her research methodology to secure financial support for your photography project.

Mary Virginia Swanson makes it her goal to help photographers find the strengths in their work and identify appreciative audiences for their prints, exhibitions and licensing placements.   Her informative seminars and lectures on marketing opportunities have proven to aid photographers in moving their careers to the next level.   Swanson maintains a popular blog about opportunities for photographers called Marketing Photos and will release her self-published title Finding Your Audience: An Introduction to Marketing Your Photographs in 2013.  Swanson coauthored Publish Your Photography Book with Darius Himes (Princeton Architectural Press, Spring 2011). Swanson’s website address is www.mvswanson.com, and the website for their book is www.publishyourphotographybook.com

Talking Pictures: Audio Techniques and the Art of the Interview

Alex Chadwick, Independent Radio Journalist
Bruce Strong, Associate Professor, Syracuse University

COURSE DESCRIPTION This course will help you understand how to tell stories with sound. Technology offers more opportunities today, with new tools for gathering material, and new outlets for distribution. We’ll show you the range of equipment  we use – from high-end stereo microphones and recorders to perfectly adequate smartphones that can get the job done. We’ll explain techniques for recording and production, how to gather and use different sound elements (interview, ambient sound, music, etc.), how to interview – and how to mix these elements together in a finished piece of work. We are both working with sound and images now and are excited by how, with the proper blending of both media, one can create extremely powerful stories that reach both the mind and the heart of your listeners and viewers.

© Donna Ferrato

Alex Chadwickis an independent journalist whose distinctive work makes him one of the most recognized reporters in public radio. His current project is a series of specials on the subject of energy and climate: BURN, An Energy Journal. At NPR he was a co-creator of Morning Edition, the most widely heard program in public radio, and a host of that program as well as All Things Considered. As chief correspondent for the Radio Expeditions series from NPR and the National Geographic Society, he won the Investigative Reporting Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Other honors include The Overseas Press Club for Outstanding Foreign Reporting (twice) and sharing in a Dupont Award for general excellence to Radio Expeditions. He has worked as a writer and feature reporter in network television (CBS, ABC, National Geographic), and for the online political magazine Slate.com, where his popular feature Interviews 50 Cents was named ‘must see’ video by The New York Times. Through his company, Conservation Sound, he continues his work to highlight threats to indigenous peoples, wildlife, and habitats in some of the world’s great ecosystems.

Bruce Strong is a multimedia storyteller and educator at Syracuse University. He has photographed in nearly 60 countries. Bruce was on staff at The Orange County Register in Southern California for 11 years and has freelanced for a variety of international publications and non-profit organizations. When he’s not in the field, Bruce spends a lot of time helping others learn to tell stories that matter as an associate professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, where he teaches an array of video, audio, photography and multimedia courses. Bruce’s work has been published in such prestigious publications as TIME Magazine and National Geographic and has earned numerous awards and fellowships from The Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship at the University of Michigan and the Knight Fellowship at Ohio University. In the fall of 2011, Bruce served as the first professional in residence at MediaStorm in New York City, where he helped produce “A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan” which was nominated for an Emmy, a finalist for Documentary of the Year at POYi, second place in Long Form Multimedia Story at POYi, and won the Media For Liberty Award. In 2010, Bruce was honored with a Meredith Teaching Recognition Award from Syracuse University and the National Press Photographers Association’s Robin F. Garland Educator Award. But Bruce is most proud of his two young sons, Jack and Cole, and loves adventuring through life with his visual journalist/professor wife, Claudia.

BOOK3: 3 hours of Peace, Love, and Photography Books

Denise Wolff, Senior Editor, Aperture Foundation


COURSE DESCRIPTION This course will cover what makes a great photography book; the working process of going from files and an idea to a physical object; what to do (and not do) when approaching and working with publishers and creative teams; and what happens to photobooks after they’re made.

Denise Wolff is a Senior Editor at Aperture, specializing in photography books. Prior to Aperture, she was the commissioning editor for photography at Phaidon Press. Throughout her career, she has had the opportunity to work on many beautiful books, including monographs with established photographers such as Roger Ballen, Mary Ellen Mark, Martin Parr, and Stephen Shore, as well as first books, retrospectives, and large surveys on a variety of subjects—from portraiture to road trips.

Afternoon Sessions

 

It’s Not A Firehose: Curating your Content Across Multiple Platforms

Pamela Chen, Senior Photo Editor, National Geographic magazine

COURSE DESCRIPTION How can photographers navigate the landscape of today’s digital publishing world without losing their souls? This session is an in-depth look at how your creative process can adapt and benefit from multiple and specific platforms. The decisions you make affect your ultimate presence online, from concept and creation to distribution and marketing. In particular, social media and the rush to video and multimedia present questions that every photographer must confront individually.Through case studies, we will discuss considerations for producing cohesive video/multimedia and polished presentations in multiple mediums, tailoring streamlined workflows to scale to amplify the impact of your core content. What lessons we can learn and adapt from individual, boutique, and global brands?


Pamela Chen is a senior photo editor for National Geographic magazine. Previously, she oversaw photography/multimedia production for the Open Society Foundations. As a documentary producer with MediaStorm, her work earned numerous accolades, including the national News & Documentary Emmy Awards, the DuPont Award, Webby Awards, and Picture of the Year International awards in photography, multimedia and music. As a commissioned musician, her sound designs appear in broadcast and online publications including the New York Times Magazine, Showtime, Hulu, and Wired. She has served as adjunct faculty for the School of Visual Arts and the International Center of Photography, and is on the Board of Advisors for the Alexia Foundation.

A Photographer’s Vision: Sorting Through Influences, Crafting Your Process


Todd Hido, Photographer

© David Kregenow

COURSE DESCRIPTION This course will focus on discussing the process a photographer goes through in crafting their projects: how I figure out what I do, why I do it, etc. We will use my career thus far as a case study, how do I find and use influences, how my photographic projects led to my current work and forthcoming book. All this in the hopes that it might inform your process and help you define your own photographic vision.

Todd Hido is a San Francisco Bay Area-based artist whose work has been featured in Artforum, The New York Times Magazine, Eyemazing, Wired, Elephant, FOAM, and Vanity Fair. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Getty, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as in many other public and private collections. He has over a dozen published books; his upcoming monograph titled Excerpts from Silver Meadows will be released in Spring 2013.

Market Overview: Working with Magazines, Design Firms and Galleries

Staci MacKenzie, Creative Manager, Doyle Partners
Jessie Wender, Associate Photo Editor, The New Yorker
Sasha Wolf, Owner/Director, Sasha Wolf Gallery

COURSE DESCRIPTION To be successful in today’s business environment, photographers should seek a presence in multiple markets that bring their work to the wall, the web, and the printed page. Understanding business practices however, is challenging. In this seminar, three NYC-based industry experts will provide insights into how they locate photographers, what is expected if you are selected for representation or commissioned to create new work, and what a professional relationship in these markets requires. Each expert will speak to their business, with shared discussion at the end.


Staci MacKenzie is a creative professional with over 15 years of experience commissioning artists in the commercial sector. She works with music, publishing, advertising, entertainment, and corporate clients to tell their story through pictures. She is always looking for talented photographers for upcoming projects.


Jessie Wender is an Associate Photo Editor at The New Yorker where she commissions photographs for the magazine and writes for Photo Booth, the magazine’s photography blog. Prior to joining The New Yorker, she worked for the Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles producing Photo LA, for the photo agency VII, and in the photo departments of Time Inc. and Esquire Magazine.


Sasha Wolf Gallery specializes in contemporary photography and represents emerging and mid-career artists. All of the gallery artist’s work is also included in important private and institutional collections such as Museum of Modern Art, the MET, the Decortava, Nelson-Atkins, and San Francisco MOMA. Exhibitions at the gallery have earned favorable reviews from publications such as the New Yorker and the Wall Street Journal. The gallery is a member of AIPAD, the Association of International Art Dealers, the leading art photography accredited association. Gallery director Sasha Wolf reviews or judges work for leading art institutions numerous times a year. She is a founding member of the gallery collective, Project 5, and a co-owner of The Exhibition Lab, a study center for fine art photography.

Please email for further instructions, if you are ready to build your Education Week schedule!


  • About LOOK3 Education

    June 11-15

    In our sixth year, we are reimagining and restructuring our educational program so it’s unlike any other learning environment available.


  • Portfolio Reviews

    June 13

    A limited number of portfolio reviews are available at the single ticket price of $50 per 20-minute session. The Education Week package includes three portfolio reviews.


  • Adobe Lightroom Courses

    June 14 & 15

    Adobe courses are taught by photographer and Adobe expert Peter Krogh and are FREE for all LOOK3 attendees with a Festival Pass. Admission is on a first come, first serve basis, and we strongly recommend that you reserve your spots through our Google Surveys.

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