"Photography of People": Lurgio & Rizzuto teach course at Ah Haa in March

15 Feb "Photography of People": Lurgio & Rizzuto teach course at Ah Haa in March

[click “Play”, Jeremy Lurgio talks about his and Tony Rizzuto’s aproaches to photographing people]

Friday – Sunday, March 11 – March 13, Jeremy Lurgio and Tony Rizzuto are scheduled to lead a photography intensive at Telluride’s Ah Haa School for the Arts. The subject matter: “The Photography of People.”

Portrait photography like portrait painting raises any number of provocative questions. To what extend does or should a portrait function like a literary biography? What distinguishes a fine art photography portrait from the digitals you snap of your family to email to relatives? Does the answer have something to do with the extent to which the person doing the shooting manages to reveal his sitter’s inner landscape. Irving Penn’s spare, frank compositions shot in the natural light of his studio with rudimentary props helped define define the look of Vogue magazine in the 1940s. Penn’s images, like those of Avedon later, produced intense engagement with his subject that made viewers feel like voyeurs.

At their Ah Haa workshop, Jeremy Lurgio and Tony Rizzuto of the Rocky Mountain School of Photography plan to uncork techniques for creating intimate portraits, including ways to manipulate light and use fill-flash to make subjects stand out, at the same time emphasizing the importance of developing your signature approach and making a subject feel comfortable.

The similarities and differences in the way each instructor approaches his subjects are as surprising as they are interesting. During field assignments, test out your  approach, with Tony and Jeremy available to answer questions. Critique sessions are designed to provide constructive feedback and allow students to learn from the successes and challenges of fellow participants.

Jeremy Lurgio is a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Missoula, Montana. His photography is driven by a passion for documenting people, places and stories. He has become a regular contributor to  Big Sky Journal and Montana Magazine. His work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic Adventure and Men’s Journal.

Tony Rizzuto has been a photographer for 14 years. Although his interests and photographic subjects are diverse, teaching is his primary passion. Tony is a 2001 Summer Intensive graduate and has spent the last nine years as the owner and head photographer at Sandbox Studios in Missoula, Montana, where he caters to both corporate and private clients.

To learn more, click the “play” button and listen to Jeremy’s discussion.