Photography in the Artist Studio: Material Interventions & Image Transformation - Winter 2027

Photography is an act of making. Photographs come into being through choices of tools, process, and place. This course will bring photography into the artist studio, utilizing the human hand to ground image-making in touch, gesture, material, and the physical act of making. We’ll take the photograph off the screen, out of the darkroom, and into the studio for further transformation.

Students will handle, draw on, cut apart, layer, obscure, assemble, mark and transform photographic images. Through playful studio exercises, we will explore the relationship between image and material and consider how physical intervention can change the photograph and the message it carries. Expressive drawing will be introduced not as a technical skill to master, but as a way of looking, responding and unblocking creative play. No previous drawing experience is necessary.

The course treats the studio as a place for experimentation. Instead of beginning with an assignment to make a predetermined project, students will build an evolving collection of experiments. Photographs, drawing, scraps, notes, found materials, unfinished attempts, and unexpected results become part of the working process. Students may bring existing photographs back into the studio to reconsider and reinvent them, shoot new photographs in response to what they discover, or move between the two. We will not consider the photograph as a fixed endpoint. A printed image can become the beginning act of making, while a studio experiment can send the photographer back to the camera.

The course will also help students establish a sustainable studio practice of their own. A studio does not require a dedicated room: it might be a kitchen table, a desk, or a temporary work surface, anywhere materials can be gathered and ideas worked through. Students will develop simple habits of making, collecting, arranging, looking, and returning to their work that can continue beyond this course.

Alongside hands-on experimentation, we will look closely at artists who move between photography, drawing, collage, sculpture, installation, and archival material. Students will leave with a body of material studies, an expanded understanding of photographic making, and an emerging vocabulary of intervention and process to carry into their practice.

Recommended Experience / Prerequisites:

• Students should have completed Photography I or have equivalent experience using a camera and producing prints.
• This is not a camera-technique course, and no previous drawing, painting, sculpture, or other studio-art experience is required. Drawing exercises are exploratory and accessible to photographers at any level of drawing experience.
• Students may bring existing photographs or bodies of work they would like to reconsider, create new photographs during the course, or do both. Curiosity, experimentation, and a willingness to make with photographs are the primary prerequisites.

CCOURSE OBJECTIVES

• Explore photography as both image-making and physical studio practice.
• Revisit existing photographs as material transformation and make new photographs in response to discoveries made in the studio.
• Develop sustainable studio habits that can function with or without a dedicated studio space.
• Explore artists who expand photographic practice through material and interdisciplinary approaches.
• Use intervention, arrangement, and display as tools for thinking through developing work.
• Explore the possibilities of the human hand and material intervention in the making of photographs.

COURSE OUTCOMES
By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Approach photographs as both images and physical material that can be reconsidered and transformed.
• Apply a range of material gestural interventions to photographic work.
• Make intentional relationships between photographic image, material, gesture, process, and form.
• Generate new directions through iterative making rather than relying solely on predetermined outcomes.
• Arrange and display works in progress to identify relationships, repetitions, questions, and emerging possibilities.
• Move between existing photographs, studio experimentation, and the production of new images.
• Establish a sustainable studio practice appropriate to their own space and working habits.
• Identify processes and questions they can continue developing independently after a the course.

IMPORTANT NOTES FOR STUDENTS

• Weekly attendance is vital to student success in PCNW courses. We require that students attend the first meeting in order to retain their spot in the class. A waiver may be granted if permission is given by, and subsequent arrangements made with, both the PCNW Registrar and Faculty. Please see our Education Policies for details about attendance policies and academic expectations.
• PCNW adheres to a strict payment, cancellation and refund policy. Please review our Payment & Refund Policies prior to registration.
• Intermediate and advanced courses have prerequisites which students must satisfy prior to enrollment. Prerequisites may be waived based on experience or prior courses taken through other institutions. To verify that you meet the prerequisite(s) for a course, contact Jennifer Brendicke, Registrar at jbrendicke@pcnw.org.
• Students are required to provide their own camera, unless otherwise noted in the course description. If you have questions about camera equipment or resources, contact us at pcnw@pcnw.org.
• Additional materials and supplies, not covered by a materials fee for a course, are the responsibility of the student. Detailed information about course expectations, required texts and materials will be provided at the start of the quarter.
• Students should prepare to spend several hours per week completing assignments outside of class, which may require use of the PCNW facilities; view our Rental Rates for details about additional fees. Rental fees for use of PCNW Facilities are a separate cost from tuition.

Images © Selena Kearney