Blog post written by Nancy Cavender-Garcia
Photohive, a student centered photographic nonprofit dedicated to helping students exhibit and create high quality work, hosted a VISION Workshop on Saturday, May 3, 2014 at the Southwest School of Art with the support of Hahnemühle USA and David Robert Farmerie. The workshop lasted 6 ½ hours, divided into two parts, giving the participants a great day of learning.
During the morning session, David Farmerie presented the idea of Creative Vision, informing the participants about ideas about how they perceive themselves and how others perceive them. They also discussed how they evolve creatively. The participants were inspired by David’s information on self-motivation and the importance of the first impressions that we create. Using real-world examples the student’s were able to gain deeper insights into this very important topic. At lunch we all took the opportunity to share our plans for digital photographic art with David and Carol Boss of Hahnemühle USA.
It was a very pleasant opportunity to share our own personal visions and goals for photography. After lunch David continued the discussion by leading the participants through the labyrinth of digital printing, presenting the technical aspects of the printing world. He began with “soft proofing” the image in the editing process all the way through to the final print. He demystified ICC Profiles and gave participants a solid understanding of how to acquire, install and use these profiles. The participants learned the importance of consistency in the workflow and left with skills that would make them better digital printers.
Throughout the day David discussed the importance of papers and their choices for each artist’s artistic vision. Sharing his personal experiences and work alongside the beautiful papers that Carol Boss presented, David constantly illustrated for workshop participants why having the perfect paper makes for the perfect digital print. Most of our participants were novices to more advanced digital papers and the chance to view and feel each of the Hahnemühle Fine Art papers opened a whole new world of printing alternatives for their art.
They were also able to compare the different types of papers through the several large format Hahnemühle sample books, as well as loose prints, illustrating how each paper surface and base affects the emotional content of the image that is printed on it. When the workshop ended, participants were reluctant to go home. Excited about the possibilities of using Hahnemühle paper to make their work even more interesting, they asked many questions. For the workshop members, having all of that paper in house where they could touch and feel it was like having many wonderful packages to open on Christmas morning.
One of the students at the workshop, Joyce Seibel, said, “I can’t begin to express how much I enjoyed David’s presentation today. With my new HP Computer and Monitor, and printer it could not have been timelier, and I also enjoyed learning about Hahnemühle Papers.”
I can only say that the workshop will make a big difference in the photographic work of those who attended and I am looking forward to having more workshops in the San Antonio area to raise awareness of the beauty of digital paper. Thank you to Carol Boss and Hahnemühle USA, David Robert Farmerie, and the Southwest School of Art for helping Photohive to make this workshop possible. And, of course, thank you to the attendees of the workshop for making it such a success.
Blog post written by Nancy Cavender-Garcia
