Light & Ink: Photography and Writing

January 6 - february 24, 6-8 PM

In this eight-week workshop, participants will explore the generative possibilities between photography and writing in creative practice. How can language illuminate or disturb the seeming fact of a photograph? Can a photograph animate a text to create new meanings? Through readings and image presentations, we will study historical and contemporary works with an emphasis on books. These discussions will feed assignments, both in-class and out, where we will explore the material weave of image and text and its expressive potential to evoke, describe, and narrate.

This workshop is ideal for artists, photographers, and writers interested in image/text forms and is open to any level of experience.

Class meetings are Mondays from 6-8 PM EDT via Zoom.

Necessary equipment and programs (not provided): computer, hard drive, camera, and Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. Access to a flat bed scanner will be useful if you plan to source photographs. You are welcome to work in any format or medium but you must bring the work into digital format to share during our meetings.

Workshop tuition is $450 and must be paid in full to reserve your spot. Enrollment is limited to 10 participants. Click the button below to register and submit payment.

About Laura

With over twenty years of experience, I have taught at all levels in a wide range of programs including The School at the International Center of Photography, Mason Gross School of the Art at Rutgers University, Ohio University, and Bard MFA. In my teaching, I center the relationship between ideas and their applications, focusing on the fertile relationship between rigorous craft and the risks of experimentation. My classes offer responsive critique with an eye to the continuity of a practice while considering directions for experimentation, growth, and research. I see my experiences as an artist, teacher, and citizen as intertwined and I am committed to equity and justice within a supportive learning environment.

TESTIMONIALS

Having Laura as a mentor has been one of the highlights of my educational experience. She introduced me to so many artists and ideas that have become rooted in the structure and methodology of my practice and teaching. Her curiosity and openness, her humanness and deep love for looking closely at histories that defy easy rationalization allows for a different type of learning to take place. Laura’s interests are broad yet come from an intensely cultivated perspective. She opens up many points of access for individuals to develop their artworks while championing and highlighting each individual’s desires and goals. Her mentorship is inclusive of conceptual, formal and technical methodologies which she incorporates seamlessly into each project, allowing participants to materially resolve the work at hand and leave with an abundance of ideas for future work.

Tannaz Farsi, Artist, Professor of Sculpture, University of Oregon

Laura has the unique ability as an educator to provide insight that not only opens up the possibilities of one’s work but expands and enriches one’s perspective of the world through photography’s potential. Her vast knowledge of photographic history, contemporary practice, literature, and intersecting subjects are an invaluable resource, which she deftly applies through thoughtful, individualized feedback. The lessons taken from Laura’s courses, both art-related and not, have always been something I find myself going back to over and over again as I make work and develop courses myself, attempting to replicate her characteristic balance of a supportive yet rigorous learning environment. She is one of those people who can’t help but profoundly impact every student who has the opportunity to work with her.

Elisa Gabor Smith, Co-founder and Director, Columbus Printed Arts Center

Laura Larson’s course (Lost & Found: Autobiography and the Found Photograph) opens up inquiry and practice around found photographs as a source for a visually charged call and response. I'm engaging with found photographs from my family's past, an album that records a community of settlers and indigenous people in the beginning of the twentieth century. Through a skillful series of short exercises, group conversation and one-on-one guidance, Laura has helped me to find a syntax, even a rhythm, for engaging with these personal/impersonal images of ancestors, all strangers, from over a century ago. She notes that there's no whole way to resolve an ongoing historical trauma: nonetheless, sitting with the images, giving them space for the 'long pause' is the beginning of insight.

Christina McPhee, Artist

One on one mentoring

I work with artists and writers for critique and professional development. Whether for one meeting or a series, I can provide project feedback, tailor assignments, and suggest paths of research. If you’re interested, please contact me here.