Lessons
Day 1
1Conceptual Meaning and Inspiration
20:56 2How to Get Started
10:18 3Breaking Down Your Own Experiences
15:00 4Experimenting with Homemade Materials and Spaces
15:03 5Testament Series
16:35 6Conceptualizing a Body of Work
11:30 7Concept Origin
31:42Thinking in Layers
13:31 9Writing an Artist Statement
09:41 10Commissioned Work vs. Fine Art
06:48 11Creating a Visual Vocabulary
10:40 12Preparing a Conceptual Beauty Shoot
08:23 13Preparing the Model
18:23 14Shooting a Conceptual Beauty Shoot
16:15 15Shooting a Conceptual Beauty Shoot Part 2
17:04 16Conceptual Beauty Shoot Questions
06:19 17Conceptual Domestic Shoot Prep
07:13 18Conceptual Domestic Shoot Part 1
25:51 19Conceptual Domestic Shoot Part 2
08:40 20Conceptual Domestic Shoot Part 3
30:19Day 2
21Submitting Work to Galleries
15:34 22Submitting Work to Publications
21:52 23How to Submit Work
06:51 24Writing a CV or a Bio
08:35 25Writing a Grant Proposal
12:57 26Artist Residencies
09:33 27Portfolio Reviews
20:49 28Pricing, Edition and Signing your Work
14:50 29Printing Your Editions
06:46 30Working with Galleries
14:16 31Building an Audience
04:56 32Preparing for an Exhibition and Final Thoughts
04:30 33Making a Living
06:38 34Conceptual Shoot with Family
1:27:00 35Conceptual Shoot with Male Model
58:17 36Post-Processing Conceptual Shoots
25:00Lesson Info
Artist Residencies
All right, what what is a residency? First of all it's basically you going on an artist vacay somewhere but you don't live so you're applying if I live in new mexico I'm applying maybe to go on a residency in italy for two months or something the only one I've actually done was in santa fe when I was living in boston and I did that one to create medic but they often will provide you with housing, food, transportation like a rental car a studio space sometimes even supplies our money for supplies a lot of times they'll have like a wood shop where you can access materials like wood and things like that and kind of a general supply closet for supplies have a darkroom maybe with chemistry that you can use stuff like that so a lot of times for photographers the supplies are kind of covered you don't have to spend a whole lot of money on supplies but this just depends on the residency. Um so what are you looking for specific cry tight criteria of course their eligibility that's number one ag...
ain, I know I've said this a lot of times that if you're a film photographer, maybe you're looking for one that's that specializes in that ok, so if you've got a speciality milk that living heck out of it that's where you're going to get that's we're gonna fit you know the length of the residents see some of them are two weeks, some of the murder two years, so you can kind of look and see what you're looking for. Sometimes I'll be completely honest artists use residency to get through until they I have money again ah lot of people do because they pay for your living experience, our living expenses, you've got a place to live, so if you're on your own and don't have a family and kids, you can kind of get through a rough patch uh, by being in a residency, a lot of people do that, so length can be important there. Is it paid or unpaid? Some of them actually give you a salary for being in the residency? Not many, but some of them do so you can look for that artist support meaning uh, do they have facilities for you to use? What's the studio like, will you be? We have a car, that kind of stuff also, what is your support than in their community? Are they going to have an exhibition for you at the end? A lot of them do so with into the exhibition to have a show and invite the public and people come and that kind of stuff, or sometimes they'll even put the work into a collection or traveling exhibition at the end, so you want to ask about that find out about that facility is of course where will you be staying that kind of stuff with the community like the one that I went to in santa fe was awesome because there were painters and sculptors, installation artists and then there was me making this big ridiculous room thing, but being around all those people was so fascinating and so cool we had dinners at night together and cook for each other meals and I mean, those people I still feel really connected to it was a really interesting experience so that part of it is important also the outside community. So are you going to be in some, you know, really remote place or you're gonna be in a place where they invite the community to come to open open studios and stuff like that? So that kind of stuff can help plug you into open studios are pretty great thing people come in and look at your work in progress and become interested in you and what you're doing um program goal. So what do they want you to do? Most of them have very specific guidelines as to what you're you have to produce while you're there so you can't just go and hang out, you have to go and make something, make work make finished work and they want to see that at the end so they'll tell you this is what needs to happen during this residency expectations kind of the same idea. So this again was the santa fe art institute residents saying I got a few years ago this is a painter next door to me who was making this amazing installation that she'd been photographs and then paint I mean, just watching her was so cool and then that was my studio base there had all this space and all these materials, they got stuff from the week what's the repo kind of store home store anyway, that all kinds of materials and furnishings and I we could just take and use, so if you're hard on cash, then that could kind of be pretty beneficial um in a rental car for us to use and run around and stuff. So again, same idea. So I'm googling artist residencies, photography and tons and tons of them come up lots. So this is probably one of the best ways to look and you can look artist residencies, photography italy and see if there's anything in a place that you want to go and it could be that you are trying to make work about italian so buddies, I don't know workers for maybe your project people who work in italy, and so you have to be in italy to do it, so maybe you're looking for that specifically because you and that is a big selling point for you say I have to be in italy because I want to do this, and so they may be real interested because their specific um and then again, there's a whole website just for residency is called red artie's razor teas, and so you can plug in kind of what you're looking for, where something specifications and there you go on right wants to know if you're a emerging artist for your emerging, you have no exhibition history, you have an education and a previous career outside of art. You've been a portrait photographer for nearly a decade but never produced fine artwork until now, where you've come completed, your first meaningful body of work, your cv is pretty much empty than, and you only have one siri's to show on your website. How do you address that void of the beginning of your career? I completely identify that was me. I mean, I was a wedding photographer for a long time, and so when I started, I had baptism, I had one body of work had no exhibition in history, so the first thing I did was go to a portfolio review and right after the break, we're going toe actually map that out in great detail what that process is like, but it connected me with fifty you know, probably fifty really important people, and the very first thing that happened was exit via karner from at the time houston center for photography published my work and that little thing lead to four, five exhibitions, so it's, just I think probably the best thing I did was a portfolio review in the very beginning because they know there's a lot of new people, and they're looking at for that, so that helped a lot. And then the next best advice is to start submitting online that that one body of work that you have, even if the cvs empty, I mean, there's a lot of folks out there like that and people are expecting to see that, you know, and they know that you're trying to build that exhibition history. So it's not anything to be embarrassed about. Just, you know, if you don't have any exhibition history, just don't list it and that's, okay, eventually will. So you've been showing us forms that we have to fill out and formats that we have to follow, but how could we make our submission stand out? So the best part of your submission is your work really fabulous artist's statement and amazing work, that's it. All the rest of it is gonna look the same because I mean, they give you pretty much a standard form and other stuff is pretty specifically formatted it needs to be a certain thing just like if you're applying to be, you know, an attorney somewhere, but the only thing that's going to stand out or make you different is having amazing work and people are looking for stuff they have not seen before. That's the biggest part is that if you if you're being the cover band instead of the composer, then you're not gonna have much luck if they've seen it before, they're just going toe represent the person who did it first, right? So that's that's the big thing off a mentor in a process like this? Is it something we recommend? Maybe when I'm starting out, I could stay or work with somebody I look up to sure way of getting how do my body you say somebody is willing to help you? Amen to that, yes, and find somebody who I mean clearly who knows what they're doing and has information and knowledge in the area that you want to pursue but some people offer on ly I offer on line mentorships with people for for three years, six months you can sign up for something like that with me, and so a lot of people have that but there are also people who are publicists for artists on dh, there are some specifically in the photo industry. You pay them to tell you what to dio, and it helps. That helps people whole lot, but it does take money, so that's, another option to goods of the spirit, wants to know. My question. Is this. If you have a very long exhibition list, do you recommend shortening it, or should you have everything in there that you never depending? If it's, a cv, put it all, if it's ah, resume, put selected exhibitions as you're heading, and then put the big ones on their the ones that you think people might recognise either the juror or the exhibition space. Okay.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with RSVP
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
"Thinking about art is not making art." In this inspiring and informative workshop, Jennifer helps you put thought into action - through meaningful self-reflection, exploration and by taking her through her own processes. Through exercises and examples, she explains how to pull out a thread of an idea and develop it into a conceptual project that is informed and invigorated by personal experience, preference, interests, and so much more. Her workshop not only feeds the creative soul, but offers earnest information on taking first steps toward publishing and showing fine-art. Jen so beautifully shares her talent and her love of teaching - I first "met" her on Creative Live and have had the joy of being mentored by her in-person as well. This workshop is a very close second to spending time with her one-on-one. Thank you, CL, for bringing her back!
kalei harmon
I love Jennifer, she's one of my cL favorites! She is such a soulful photographer and her art just resonates with me in so many ways. While she was creating her conceptual piece with the mother and child, my eyes welled up because it was such a profound experience to witness. I appreciate that she has a graduate degree in art and is able to refer to others in the field who are leading the way. She is so genuine and I'm grateful for her willingness to bare her soul to us through her art and process. I've learned so much by watching how she interacts with models and communicates efficiently and gently to get AMAZING poses. Definitely worth the buy if you're looking for inspiration from an artist who creates images which evoke emotion and communicate a message, not just trying to make "great photos." I can't wait to learn about the business side of it all!
Majda
I am so grateful for this class; it is just what I have been looking for to help me go beyond my "photographic potty training". By leading us through her own creative process, Jennifer Thoreson invites us to think about why we do what we do and to make our work more meaningful and authentic, creating our unique visual vocabulary. Moreover, she provides detailed info on submitting work to galleries and publications, contests, printing editions, preparing an exhibition and pricing. In her calm, unpretentious manner, Jennifer demystified art without trivializing it and I finally saw light at the end of a rather long tunnel.
Student Work
Related Classes
Portrait Photography