A photograph is not truly finished until it becomes a print

An elegant essay of one photographer's artistic journey over the last few years.

A finished Awagami Bizan A2 print similar to one of two finished and mounted prints that participants create in our Advanced Awagami workshop.

For almost two decades all of our workshops, and this newsletter have focused exclusively on photography in print. We’ve been on this mission as we believe that producing that physical manifestation is central to photographic art, a nessesary part of our shared human experience.

We’ve recently completed the latest installment of our hands-on Advanced Awagami workshop. One of the participants, John Shaw, wrote an essay on his website that elegantly expresses how his own photography has been influenced by our philosophy and mission. I believe all of you will be interested in this well-written description of his photographic journey and encourage all of you to take a few minites and read his essay.

There is an idea that has followed me through each of the workshops I have taken with fine art photographer Les Picker: a photograph is not truly finished until it becomes a print.

That idea may sound almost old-fashioned in a world where most photographs are viewed for a few seconds on a phone or computer screen. But the more seriously I have approached photography and printing, the more strongly I have come to believe it myself.

— John Shaw

Quite a while ago we committed to update you once a month regarding the status of openings in our workshop schedule. You may have noticed those updates seem to be few and far between. I promise that is not us slacking off or forgetting to provide those updates. Even expanding the number of our most popular workshops has not provided adequate openings for the demand. The entire 2026 schedule sold out within a week of availablity. The same is true of our early 2027 workshops.

We are currently looking at the 2027 calendar and opportunity to expand the number of workshops scheduled. Keep a look out for more 2027 workshop dates coming but we’ll start with an additional Advanced Awagami workshop scheduled for May 15-16, 2027. More info and registration is at the LPFA website now.