The Joy Of The Physical

Africa, the importance of in-person experience, and workshops.

A teaser for my next Water Colors update. Yes, I’ve been hard at work on that project.

As I write this Les is in some state of traveling back from Africa. Here’s a silly question; Why did he go to Africa? I mean why did he pack all of his camera stuff, clothing, and other supplies and then get on many different vehicles with wheels and wings to be in that place? Wouldn’t it have been far less trouble and cost nothing to just do it ”virtually”?

I know that seems like a silly thing to ask. Indulge me, think about it for a minute. I assure you that every single category, genus, and species of plant and animal Les encountered can be viewed in every way and even more intimately “virtually”. Every bit of ground he drove over, walked across and set up his tripod on I can look at via satellite photo and zoom in. I can be intellectually more aware of his altitude, air pressure, temperature, and relative humidity via global topographic maps and weather data. I can literally know more than he does from here in Maryland in real time while he’s standing in that place.

I could go on in terms of intellectual data and knowing things but it would never be the same or as good as the physical, tangible, tactile experience. My virtual trip would be far more efficient and possibly more productive. I could spend less time and know more. I could probably make a dozen similar virtual trips for free while he was busy doing completely “unproductive” things.

Was his physical, tactile, and tangible visit unproductive, inefficient, and wholly obsolete being not even remotely cost-effective? Not a chance! I’ve spent a lot of time physically in South Africa and know things that nobody else knows, I’ve seen things nobody else has seen, and I’ve experienced things nobody else will tangibly. We are physical beings that exist in the grounded reality of our physical world. We all crave tangible, physical sensations.

If I had my way I’d deliver a paper copy of this newsletter along with physical prints of finished projects to every reader. I know that’s not possible but would be preferential. This is the essence of our shared love of physical prints that must be shared in person, in a specific place, at a specific time, with the physical presence of other people. It’s also why our primary focus is in-person workshops. For those that cannot “be there”, virtual representations in words and pictures are certainly second best.

Les’ physical voyage to Africa over the last three weeks was a unique experience that those of us not with him obviously cannot completely experience the way he did. He’s been there before, but that was a different experience. The point of his photographs when he’s done curating that experience and producing his art is to distill what he felt and saw to his audience the best he can. The distillation of the unique human experience into a more compact form. Isn’t that the point of art?

That brings us to the point of producing a physical representation of art on paper. The hard work of curating, editing, making decisions, then manifesting those decisions in a physical object to be enjoyed physically. A tangible thing to enjoy and share in person with others. Do you enjoy visiting a museum more than a virtual tour? Do you take more time in being next to a physical representation of someone else’s attempt to manifest their art physically? Is it better to be in the Sistine Chapel or visit the Wikipedia page?

What’s Next

Over the last two months, I’ve received a dozen requests from readers about when, where, and how to register for our workshops. To each and every one of those requests, I made a commitment to regularly publish upcoming workshop opportunities. I’ve not fulfilled that commitment yet. I promise to do so but I wanted to take a moment to explain why I haven’t. Here are a few facts.

• Every workshop we scheduled for 2023 is filled as we limit attendance to 4 participants.

• We added two private workshops upon request we did not anticipate, one is this coming weekend. Yes immediately upon Les’ return.

• When we started this newsletter we did not want it to be merely a marketing mechanism. We still don’t. We want it to be a resource for photographers that love prints, not just people that can attend our workshop events.

• We are working on three new workshops that are large endeavors in terms of putting the program curriculum together, sample materials, and the ability to communicate that.

• For this newsletter, we are in the final stages of producing something we believe readers will love, or at least find valuable. I started that project in March, it’s sucked an immense amount of time but will be forthcoming this month, I promise. I hope it will also be an ongoing vehicle for all of our readers to share their work and experience.

What I’m saying is that we’ll be able to take a breath after August. We may possibly have the ability to add a few workshops this year and our planning for 2024 takes shape in the last 2-3 months of 2023.

We’d love to hear what shape of workshops all of you would like to see from us. Below is a generic survey as the vast majority of readers would need to travel to the mid-Atlantic to attend. For those of you that are interested in attending any of our print and editorial-focused workshops don’t stop at the survey. Drop a comment with the nature of the topics you are interested in.

Our current most popular workshops running are as follows:

• One-day introduction to fine art printing.

• Three-day portfolio workshop where we start a project curation process a couple of months before the event and then finish that last critical editorial process and production of a gorgeous custom portfolio box during the event.

• One day black and white workshop

• Half-day introduction to Awagami papers (better in person but we plan on doing a book/ebook version of that)

• Two-and-a-half-day advanced Awagami workshop that starts with us helping to curate your images that would work best on two of the most dramatic Awagami papers (Unryu and Bizan). The event itself is the physical mounting and presentation of those two dramatic prints.

As mentioned we have three additional workshops currently under development for 2024. These are:

• Three-day custom book workshop that starts months before the date of the event. It is a more focused editorial and project development program that results in a canvas-covered boxed book using Awagami or other papers. It’s targeted at photographers with projects that require more images than a portfolio and are better presented as a custom-printed, custom-made book that may include other elements beyond photographs alone.

• One or Two-day Creative use and display of Awagami inkjet and other papers.

• Hand-made bookbinding for photographic books. We are testing various options and this workshop will be three days to one week.