Alumni News
If you are a Workshops alum and would like to share your story, please contact alumni@theworkhops.com for guidelines.
From Rockport to Right Hand Drive (or why being laid off might be good for you!)
If you’re a bit of a geek, and if you don’t mind ever seeing your work actually used, and if you like being in a grey cube all day, then being a software guy in Northern Virginia is the perfect job.
After 13 years of this torture I began looking enviously at the Workshops brochure, the beautiful coastline of Maine and these pictures of potential filmmakers actually practicing making films. The fact that students were actually running the camera, pushing the dolly and producing stuff was very attractive. In fact, even most of the class titles made me salivate!!
If I had been 21 it would have been an easy choice, but I was double that with 3 kids in tow. But the thought of doing nothing but making films for 3 months was overwhelming. I had my eye on the professional filmmakers certificate program, 3 months in the fall and 3 months in the spring, culminating with making your own short film. Pretty cool! Except that I thought I could only excuse my self from my job for 3 months.
So, in August of 2000 I packed up my family and we all moved up to a cottage on the Maine coast.
Read all of From Rockport to Right Hand Drive (or why being laid off might be good for you!)
Alumni Update: Jordana Zeldin
Jordana Zeldin grew up in a theatrical family and spent a lot of her childhood and teen years studying acting, fully expecting to follow a career in the theatre. Meanwhile, she also maintained a strong, but background, interest in photography.
Not long ago she concluded that acting was not for her, and began work at a corporate job. It was then that photography moved into the foreground. A friend’s comments on her work, and suggestion that she enter an image into a competition, made her consider a photography career. She immersed herself in the subject and starting doing street photography, leading to a solo show late last year. She also began doing head shots and other theatrical jobs, assisted in a fashion shoot, and worked at the ICP in New York.
Workshops Alum Featured in Chocoloate Church Exhibition
Workshops alumna Amy Campbell is featured artist in the upcoming photography exhibition "Second Look" at the Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath, Maine. October 17 through November 15.
The title refers to the fact that all of the artists in this show had work in the Center’s juried photography exhibition which takes place in January every year. This year, juror Dave Higgins was so impressed by the quality of the submissions that he asked a number of photographers who had work in the January show to present a body of work for a “Second Look”. From this group he selected five photographers to be represented in this month’s show: Gloria Brown of Durham, Daniel Dow of Cumberland Center, Roger Duncan of Bath, Sarah Sutter of Lisbon and Amy Campbell of Rockport.
Higgins hopes to make this show an annual event, with photographers from the January exhibition providing the pool of possible entrants.
The opening reception for “Second Look” is set for Friday, October 17, 5 -7PM.
The Chocolate Church Arts Center is located at 798 Washington Street in Bath. For information about the gallery talks, please call the gallery at 207-442-8455. Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, noon until 4PM.
Art Nouveau at VoxPhotographs
Exhibition: September 2 - 30, Portland, Maine
Reception for artists: September 10, 4:30 - 7:30 PM
VoxPhotographs celebrates Maine photographs, including the work by eight contemporary photographers, including Maine Media Workshops alum Liv Kristin Robinson, Alum 99, of Camden and Belfast and David Brooks Stess, Alum 94, NYC and Machias.
All will be presenting new work and will be available at the reception to meet guests and talk about their photographs.
For an invitation to the reception, please call 207-323-1214 or send a note: info@voxphotographs.com
Amy Wilton Publishes New Book
Amy Wilton, Alum '07 of Hope, has a new book coming out at the end of August. It's published by Down East Press and called "A Passion for Sea Glass". Carole Lambert is the author and Amy did the photography. The cover and a sample are on Amy's website.
There will be a release party at the White Hall Inn in Camden, Maine on August 23rd from 4-6 pm.
The book will be available in bookstores up and down the east coast and also online at amazon.com at the end of August.
Patrisha McLean Exhibits Work at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Patrisha McLean, Alum '08, will be exhibiting new photographs from her black and white series, Flower Girls, at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay from July 29th through August 11.
The opening reception is on Sunday, August 3 from 2 p.m. to 5 p .m.
She also has a photograph in the 2008 biennial at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. (Rockport). This show opens on August 8.
Alumni Update: Kerry Long
Growing up in a family of artists, Kerry Long spent a lot of time being taken to museums and galleries. She liked most of it. Those visits plus a hand-me-down Minolta got her interested in photography. To learn more she came to Rockport one summer for a two-week Young Photographers’ workshop, taught by David Spear. She recalls it as a “great experience,” advancing her technique, improving her darkroom skills, and spending lots of time “accosting people” and photographing them and the surrounding area. Most important, it turned her vague interest into genuine love for photography.
Alumni Update: Rufus Teixeira
Rufus Q Teixeira considers himself lucky to have attended a high school with TV studio. Working there led him to seek a career in film and video production. He majored in the subject in college, but became frustrated with his studies and left, taking a job at a local independent TV station. A co-worker who had attended the Workshop’s film work-study program told Teixeira about it, and recommended that he go. He took the advice and came to Rockport for the seven-week class, taught by Jacqui Frost.
Alumni Update: Ryan Orilio
Ryan Orilio had been teaching communications for several years when he was assigned a new class on film and video production. To get the training he felt he needed, he spent two weeks at the Workshop in summer of 2007, taking introductory and advanced classes in “Film and Video Production for Teachers” from Bart Weiss. Besides teaching him film-making skills, Weiss’ classes helped Orilio design his syllabus and set reasonable expectations for his course.
Alumni Update: Peter Jones
Peter Jones has been enthralled by caves since he first saw one at age eleven. In college he began photographing as well as exploring them. “Caves are beautiful,” says Jones, “but dark,” so he devised ways of using artificial light to get the images he wanted.