4-DAY WORKSHOP
GREG GORMAN: The Male Nude: Photographing the Body
Orientation Sunday, May 5, 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Monday, May 6th – Wednesday, May 8th 9:00am – 6:00pm.
Thursday, May 9th 9:00am – 11:00am (Optional)
Many of us have experience photographing the female form but to seriously be able to approach the nude in photography, we’ve developed this exclusive workshop for both women and men to engage in the serious photography of the male nude.
Greg Gorman has been at the top of his game for over 35 years, world renowned for his extraordinary nudes published in his many beautiful books. In this special workshop, for the first time in his career, Gorman offers a class in photographing the male nude. He will work intensely with his students, revealing his style and techniques. It will feature active picture-making, supplemented by morning presentations / demonstrations by Greg, also allowing time for group and individual picture critiques. Emphasis will be on the nude as portrait on location as well as settings offered in the famous desert locale. Gorman is widely regarded for his commitment to his work and his classes, attendees will find this workshop a game-changing experience.
“I am so happy to be back and working with the Palm Springs Photo Festival! I have been teaching at the Workshops here for the better part of 14 years now and at this point in my life, it has taken center stage. After almost 50 years in the motion picture business shooting advertising campaigns and personality portraits, my passion and interests have changed. My real focus today has been embracing a career in education. I feel so fortunate in that I was able to pursue a career in something I love so much as photography. To now be able to give back and share that passion with others of similar interests has become my primary goal.
The format of our classes will be very simple. We will shoot at some of my favorite locations in the Palm Springs area that provide amazing environments for photography. I will focus on various lighting techniques that have worked well for me throughout the years and share to the best of my ability my knowledge in terms of being able to see and recognize light and how to properly communicate with the talent in front of our lenses.
I will divide our class into groups with each group having a model as their subject. The teams will switch off shooting each of the models throughout the course of each afternoon. When one member of each team is shooting, the other members of the group will be asked to work as assistants in whatever capacity that photographer feels will best help him / her get the image they are looking for. This will help each class member better understand the use of reflectors, silks, light readings and in general, what it takes to create a good image.
We will begin the week in the studio with a lecture about my career and how I began to develop my style and how it has evolved and changed through the years. Following this, I will look at 10-12 images from each member of the class to get a better understanding of their work and where I can help each of them reach their goals and improve their abilities to achieve that connected portrait.
Please bring them on a thumb drive if possible as SRGB jpeg’s at 72ppi with the longest dimension at 1620px.
Following my talk and our review, I will offer several lighting demonstrations with Rotolight’s advanced LED Lighting solutions. I have switched over to continuous lights from strobes as I find them less obtrusive and more efficient in terms of getting the portraits I wish to capture today. I think the class will find them to be easy to work with and certainly more user-friendly compared to traditional studio strobes and tungsten lighting. They will have a chance to see how I work with additive and subtractive light and how I go about analyzing individual faces. This will give them a look at the basics and the raw tools we will be incorporating in our journey to capture that special image this week.
Most likely this will take us to lunch on Day One. The afternoon will be spent in individual groups working on portraits in the studio. At the end of each day, I would like each student to process 10 of their favorite or most problematic images to be discussed in an open forum the following morning. I request that each member of the class process their pictures and crop them accordingly. Retouching of any sort is not really required since I am more interested in the pure image in terms of the choices of tonality and cropping.
Each morning will be spent reviewing the work and discussing the previous day’s challenges in an open forum and time permitting, looking at some other visual material I will bring. Days 2 & 3 afternoons will be spent shooting on location with several models.
The workshop will supply light modifiers for this workshop including all lighting, silks, as well as silver, white, and black reflectors from California Sunbounce.”
-Greg Gorman
Models will be provided each shooting day, giving each participant ample time to make important photographs. The ratio of models to photographers is approximately 1:4.
Photographers working with digital cameras should bring their laptops, several flash cards and be conversant with their hardware and software in order to facilitate downloading and projecting their work for critiques in class. Digital projectors with standard VGA cables will be provided. If you require DVI connectors and / or adapters, please bring one to class. Digital portfolios should be roughly 1024×768@72 dpi srgb jpegs for speed and efficiency and please note that images for review each morning should be sized with no layers.
Models*, transportation and delicious boxed lunches are provided.
Photographers should bring their laptops and be conversant with their hardware and software in order to facilitate downloading and projecting their work for critiques in class. Digital projectors with standard DVI / VGA cables will be provided. If you require any special adapter for your computer for this purpose, please be sure to bring one to class.
All Workshop Participants are invited to the Canon/Freestyle Digital Print Center at Korakia on Thursday, May 9th from 11:00am to 6:00pm to have an image of their choice printed out on a Canon Pro 2000 printer, using custom profiles and on their choice of several inkjet papers.
PRICE: $1530.
This workshop is limited to 16 attendees.
REGISTER NOW
BIOGRAPHY
For over four decades, Greg Gorman has continued to master the art of photography. From celebrity portraits and advertising campaigns to magazine layouts and fine art work, Greg has developed and showcased a discriminating and unique style in his profession. His work documents that peculiar obsession of the 21st century: celebrity.
In 1985, through the advice of illustrator Antonio Lopez, Gorman realized that he needed a creative outlet in addition to the commercial work that launched his career. He then began to expand his personal work exploring the human form and became a notable photographer for not only his celebrity portraiture but also his figure studies of the male and female nude.
When not shooting famous faces, Greg travels the world for specialized photographic projects and continues to work on compilations of his imagery. Last December, Greg released his 11th monograph, Greg Gorman Private Works 2000-2015, a collection of previously unpublished male portraits and nudes (his first foray into color). In the Spring of 2015, Outside the Studio, a book of Greg’s street photography in South East Asia was published by Damiani Editore. A book of his photos for the award winning l.a. Eyeworks campaign, entitled Framed was released in 2012. In the fall of 2009, Damiani Editore released In Their Youth: Early Portraits, which incorporated forty years of unpublished work. These join Gorman’s previously published books Greg Gorman Volume I, Greg Gorman Volume II, Inside Life, Perspectives, As I See It, Just Between Us and a book of platinum prints entitled Odes to Pindar, published by The Journal of the 21st Century. Two exhibitions of his work have recently been held alongside his friend, the late photographer, Helmut Newton, at the Helmut Newton Foundation: Gorman ‘Men’ (2013) and Gorman ‘Color Works’ (2015). Says Gorman, “Of all of my exhibitions, I am most proud to have had the opportunity of exhibiting alongside one of my true heros!”
Greg Gorman has been recognized for his contribution to the world of photography with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Professional Photographer’s of America, the Achievement in Portraiture Award from The Lucie Foundation and the Pacific Design Center Stars of Design Award. Greg has also been acknowledged for his charitable works for The Elton John Aids Foundation, Aids Healthcare Foundation, Focus on Aids, The Oscar De La Hoya Foundation, Vox/Out Voices of Style + Design, PETA, Angel Art, and PawsLA.
Born in 1949 in Kansas City, Missouri, Greg attended the University of Kansas from 1967-69 with a major in photojournalism. He completed his studies at the University of Southern California, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Cinematography in 1972. Greg’s latest career venture has been in the world of winemaking. In collaboration with Orin Swift Cellars, Greg began making wine under his own label, GKG Cellars, in 2006. He currently divides his time between his homes in Los Angeles and Mendocino, California.
Greg Gorman is represented worldwide by the Fahey Klein Gallery, LA
WEBSITE
http://www.gormanphotography.com
www.greggormanprivateworks.com
*A Note about Model Fees: Models will not be obliged to sign releases for workshop students and photographs made in the context of the workshop may not be published commercially without the express written consent of the model. Photographers can discuss the subject directly with the models and make arrangements of mutual benefit to both, after the conclusion of the workshop program, but the model fee included in your registration fee does not include obtaining releases. There will be four models available for this workshop. Model fees can run between $350 and $2,000 per model in private sessions for nude photography.
