Photography Presentation
Santa Fe Photographic Workshops
Mon, Oct 26, 7:30pm
Teatro Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75
Free


This week at the Santa Fe Workshops
By Françoise Lemieux

Photo by Paul Elledge©

This weekend, San Miguel’s per-capita artist count skyrockets, as the Santa Fe Photography Workshops pay their yearly visit. Based at Hotel Posada de la Aldea, they’ll host three weeks of intensive world-class photo workshops, with folks from far and wide who’ve followed their image-making bliss to our picturesque pueblo.

Paul Elledge and Leasha Overturf lead Contemporary Black-and-White Portraits, a course designed for accomplished photographers yearning to move beyond the traditional portrait. Participants will be on a quest for new, imaginative ways of seeing their subjects. On the way, they’ll start defining their own style of contemporary monochromatic portraiture.

Award-winning photographer Elledge’s extensive client list includes various celebrities, from Pavarotti to Oprah. Apart from numerous solo and museum shows, his multifaceted work has appeared in publications such as Audubon, Life, Rolling Stone and TIME. 

Photo by Leasha Overturf ©

Leasha Overturf’s arresting imagery is all about real people. Widely shown, published and collected, her photos examine family, childhood and the younger generation, often in public settings and urban environments. 

To see their work, go to: www.leasha.com  and www.paulelledge.com. 

The Rural Eyeglasses Project has vision. In a very personal approach to documentary photography, John Michael Coppinger, his students and several eye doctors will delve into rural San Miguel to provide free eye care, while mentoring local teenagers with photographic aspirations.

The course combines photography, education, writing, mentoring, self-reflection and community service. Aside from being immersed in the documentary process, participants will be hand out eyeglasses, give eye exams and teach local women to perform them. 

Specializing in documentary and medical photography, Coppinger conducts workshops around the world. His nonprofit Rural Eyeglasses Project has helped provide basic eye care and glasses for thousands of Nicaraguans since 2001. 

For more information, go to: www.jmceyephoto.com.  To donate old glasses, contact the Lions Club at: www.smalions.org/EyeClinic.htm. 

Students in The Colors of Mexico will capture San Miguel and environs in living color, as Alison Shaw guides them beyond “postcard-pretty” color photography. Shaw will share both her passion for the creative possibilities of color and her knowledge of methods to maximize its impact. Topics of discussion include light and color and how they can “transform the most mundane as well as the grandest of subject matters.” 

A fine art and editorial photographer based in Martha’s Vineyard, Shaw photographs for various magazine and book projects. Shaw’s books include Stone by Design, Vineyard Harvest, Vineyard Summer, and Until I Saw the Sea. Her very colorful web site is www.alisonshaw.com. 

Sarah Meghan Lee and her group will explore Day of the Dead. Participants will step out amid the marigolds and sugar skulls to photograph preparations and festivities for this very lively celebration—in private homes as well as at the cemetery. They’ll also create their own muertos altar.

An accomplished photojournalist, Lee began as an assistant photo editor for USA Today. In 1996, she traveled to Rwanda to shoot for newspapers, international relief agencies and the Associated Press. 

Based in Mexico City, her fascinating images have been printed in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and the Boston Globe. To see her work, go to: www.sarahmeghanlee.com. 

Image presentations begin Monday evening at the Bellas Artes Theater, with work by Overturf, Shaw and Elledge.

Don’t despair—space is still available in certain workshops. Workshops begin on Monday mornings (except for Day of the Dead). For more information go to www.santafeworkshops.com  or call 152-8400 in San Miguel.