Natural Inventions – Staging in the landscape – Sept. 5-7
Walden, Taimaz Moslemian, 2025
Similar to last year’s land-based workshop, we invited photographers to engage with the land in staging site-specific assemblages using natural materials which were then photographed. Over the weekend we used cyanotype printing methods to turn digital images into tangible prints. The participants this year, who included experienced artists and photographers, presented their portfolios in our evening session adding to this engaging event.
Exposing cyanotypes, Peter Stranks, Sardar Farrokhi and Taimaz Moslemian, September 2025
If you are interested in attending a future workshop, please contact us atworkshops@scff.ca. Participants may arrive on Friday to stay the weekend at SCFF or arrive for each day’s session. Registration and accommodation arrangements will be posted.
Similar to last year’s land-based photo workshop, we invite photographers and non-photographers alike, to engage with the land in constructing site-specific assemblages using natural materials and then to photograph them. The image remains as a record of what will inevitably change and fade in the landscape. Over the weekend we will use alternative printing methods to turn digital images into tangible prints.
Cyanotype print form digital exposure, Will Wright, August 2024
Participants will work with digital cameras, but are free to shoot film for later processing as well. Exercises and photography will take place around the farm property. Digital results will be reviewed onsite and historical cyanotype printing (blueprinting) will be experimented with. All materials will be provided and a basic camera or phone for making exposures is all that is required.
If you are interested in attending a workshop, please register online or contact us at workshops@scff.ca. Participants will stay the weekend at SCFF or arrive for each day’s session.
Practicalities
Participants will arrive in Tamworth on Friday afternoon or evening and may stay an extra night on Sunday to make a long weekend should they desire.
Cost: $575 includes tuition, accommodation and meals; $390 for those who do not require accommodation and breakfasts.
A deposit of $60 will hold your place with full payment due 2 weeks prior to the workshop. A non-refundable fee of $60 will apply if you cancel less than 2 weeks prior.
Ride sharing can be coordinated where possible. Pick-up and drop-off in Napanee is also possible should one wish to take the bus or train from Toronto area or Montreal.
Various workshop programs may be made available, depending on interest, along with book-related ones that may be of interest to photographers. Two examples include the following and you may wish to review the past workshop posts as well.
Natural Inventions – Staging in the landscape
Stone Alignment, Shibagau Creek, Peter Sramek, 2024
We invite photographers and non-photographers alike, to engage with the land in constructing site-specific assemblages using natural materials and then to photograph them. The image remains as a record of what will inevitably change and fade in the landscape. Over the weekend we use alternative printing methods to turn digital images into tangible prints.
Workshop participants with co-instructor Walter Bergmoser, August 2024
Seeing Black and White: The Zone System
Matsudera walk – Temple Garden
This workshop will cover practical aspects of black and white photography, based on the Zone System methods of understanding light and exposure. Addressing both digital and film photography, this approach allows for previsualization of the grey values of the image, resulting in improved negatives and digital files that are closer to what one sees in the mind. Participants may work with digital and/or film processes. Exercises and photography will take place around the farm and digital results will be reviewed onsite. Film work will be processed later on your own time, but may be evaluated through online sharing.
Peter Sramek learned the Zone System when studying at MIT from Minor White, author of the Zone System Manual. He then taught black and white photography for over 40 years at OCAD University in Toronto.
If you are interested in attending a workshop, please contact us at workshops@scff.ca. Participants may arrive on Friday to stay the weekend at SCFF or arrive for each day’s session. Registration will be posted here as workshop dates are announced each year. If you have particular interests, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Working with Walter Bergmoser and Peter Sramek, the workshop participants explored image-making with collaged natural materials exposed in the bright sunlight onto cyanotype paper and regular silver photo paper.
An introduction to the concept of art and interventions in nature supported by watching the documentary film of Andy Goldsworthy’s site-specific works, led to participants creating works in the forest and the creek bed. Enlarged acetate negatives were used to print images as cyanotypes and also for experiments in exposing directly onto large tree leaves of various kinds.
