Our September Creative Center workshop, Photography: Documenting the Domestic, Observing the Personal, adapted easily to the stay-at-home requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Zoom, the class was able to engage participants from all parts of New York who otherwise might have found it challenging to travel. The class learned ways to become better observers of the details of life at home by looking at their objects, their rooms and more with thoughtfulness and intention. Participants gained an appreciation of the beauty around them and shared their intimate views with others, often with a sense of humor. With the purpose of developing careful and close observation, the class began by looking at 17th century Dutch interiors. The careful observation of light and the meaning of each object in the painter's work began to give participants new ways to view and capture their own environments. Class discussions, led by instructor Janis Lewin, involved many participants and proved that art can foster a lively artistic community, even under these constrained circumstances.
Janis Lewin is a photographer and educator living in NYC. Through traveling and documentary work, she has developed travel workshops as well as independent classes. Teaching through The Creative Center and the NYC Su Casa Program for Seniors in Manhattan, is one way Janis has been able to reach out to a variety of communities in New York. She reliably brings aspects of her art history background (BA, University of California, Berkeley) to photography students at every level. Her photography workshops in Cuba have been particularly exciting due to her many years of travel to the island. Private workshops offer individuals and small group access and experience in uncounted ways.
Class participants: Alicia Ortiz Justiniano, Thea Callender, Irina Choma, Mary Ellen S., Anthony P., Didi Schiller, Gen, Wendy W.
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Alicia Ortiz Justiniano |
Margarita's Tapestry |
Glass |
Rotten Tomato |
Tibetan Bowls |
Stink Bug |
Through The Window |
Time |
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Thea Callender |
Bright Morning
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Soft Blossom |
Helpers |
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Resting Place
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Morning Light |
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Irina Choma |
COVID Still Life |
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Masks on Hanger
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Tarasik
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Hello, It's Me |
Vase and Self Portrait
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Framed Memories |
Behind The Curtain
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Mary Ellen S. |
Pizza By Candlelight
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Kitchen |
Bat House |
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Wet Martini
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Candle
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Anthony P. |
Into the Bubble Verse |
Bubble Artist |
An Isolation Self-Portrait |
A Boy and his World 1 |
Bubble Sculptor |
Through a Green Lens |
A Boy and his World 2
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Didi Schiller |
Boxed
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Candlesticks |
Crystals |
Framed |
Vase
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Gen |
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Brighter Days Will Come
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Wendy W. |
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