Inhabiting the Frame: Real and Imagined Identities through Self-Portraiture - Winter 2027

FACULTY Danielle Quenell DATE / TIME March 20 - 21, 2027 | Saturday & Sunday 12:30-5:30pm TUITION $290 Payment & Refund Policy Scholarship Opportunities FORMAT In-person, enrollment is limited to 12 students LEVEL Foundation PREREQS Proficient working knowledge of primary camera operations and photographic concepts This two-day, intensive workshop explores self-portraiture as a method for constructing and interrogating identity, rather than simply capturing a flattering likeness. Participants will work with costume, masks, personal objects, and family photographs as tools for developing a visual language to express their interior experiences. Through guided discussion and extended image-making, participants build a small body of work grounded in staging and self-obscuring rather than documentation—creating image sequences that reflect personal memories, themes and relationships. Across two days, participants move from concept and reference to sustained, prompt-driven shooting time, leaving with a series of images and a working method for continuing this kind of self-portraiture as a tool for reflection and self-expression on their own. Day 1 Outline — Concept & First Shoots Introduction: self-portraiture as inner-state expression Artist reference discussion Group discussion: costume, masking, averting the face, and "becoming someone else" as strategies for revealing rather than concealing the self Prompt-based shooting session #1 (students work independently and in pairs, instructor circulates for feedback) End-of-day review: what’s working, what’s challenging? Day 2 Outline — Deepening the Work Morning check-in: reviewing Day 1 images, identifying threads worth developing New prompt set, building on themes from Day 1 Extended shooting time Optional: props/costume exchange or collaborative posing exercise (students may photograph each other under the same conceptual constraints and/or make use of multiple forms in a single image) Final group critique: sequencing images as a small series, discussing next steps for continued work What to Bring: Camera (digital or film) you are comfortable operating Self-timer or long cable release required for film shooters Suggested (optional, not required): a few costume pieces, fabric, or meaningful objects from home Images © Danielle Quenell