I have attended Palm Spring Photo Festival in March for The Still Life Reconsidered workshop taugh by Christopher Griffith.
(image from CG website)
Honestly, I don't know much about Christopher Griffith before I signed up for his workshop. I was simply attrected to his images when I looked up his work on his website - simple but bold were my impression of his work.
I have attend a workshop last year so I know the quality of this organization but still surprised when I got an email before hand from Chris that he want us to answer some questions so he can better understand how to prepare his workshop.
And later on I realized his work is a represtation of his personality and throught out his website, logo, portfolio book, Bio, how he talks and dress are very much in line.
I was signed up for one other workshop at first because for some reason I didn't see Chris's workshop when I register. And I am very much glad that I made the change few weeks before the workshop. I am suprised but glad that our workshop was small, compare to other workshop, we had 6 attendees plus one assistance and Chris.
The workshop is 3 and a half day long. The first day were spent in room, look through the work that mean something in Chris's career - his turning point, his style changes, personal work that bring him future work, etc. He told us how is change his career from a research biochemist to a fashion photographer, and then later on became a Still Life photographer.
We also went through attendees's work to get an idea on what subject people like to photograph and their style.
The second day we went out to shoot.
Chris show us how he photograph his book - States (2000) from how he pick the subjects, composition, lighting, background, etc. It seems easy but very labor intensed. It took him 18 months to shoot for the book until he spend all his money so he had to stop to put out the work and see how people react.
This book help him make the switch, from a Fashion Photographer to a Still Life Photographer. He shot all the images with film and no Retouching which make it even more special.
What I most admired is his belief - "I am not that interested in crazy complicated lighting, gizmos etc. I am more about really finding a new way to look at something, or finding new meaning out of things which would otherwise go unnoticed. This has sort of been a theme of all 3 of my books. Forgotten America (States), the fallen leaf (Fall) and blown out roadside detritus (Blown)."
The 3rd day were in a studio.
Chris show us how his photograph for his second book Fall (2004) and told us the story behind the book.
His lighting setup is pretty simple like he mentioned before. He prefer harsh lighting plus very reflective cards because he likes to give the subject more defenation. He will try not to bring up a second light if possible because he believes more lights just going to make it more complicate.
He also try to look and think before he press the shutter so he can get it down with one frame. He told us he also try to photograph a car with one frame which is very rare nowadays and people call him "old school" because not many people have the skill to photography a entire car in one frame.
His 3rd book "Blown" (2008) focus on the tires he found on highway. He spent 6 years to collect broken tires he found on highway, bring them back to his studio, and photograph them with new meaning.
He told us that his 4th book "Power Tokyo" will be publishing in the end of this year. I can't wait to see it.
The 4th day morning was the time for everyone sharing what they have been taking in the past two days. I didn't take that many images but I learn a lot. Chris is a such interesting person which truely reflect on his work.
The Palm Springs Photo Festival in March in West and the PDN Photo Plus in October in East are two must attend events in my book.
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