About the Workshop

Since photography’s inception, its primary subject has been people, capturing aspects other visual arts often cannot. Perceived as objective, photographs are accepted as reality, though the photographer’s hand always shapes the final image. Pioneers like Mathew Brady, Peter Henry Emerson, and Jacob Riis significantly influenced public perception through environmental portraiture.

Environmental portraiture has not only endured but thrived in today’s image-saturated world. With cameras in nearly every pocket, people are developing a visual language shaped by a lifetime of consumed images. This workshop will explore environmental portraiture through figures like Dorothea Lange, Arnold Newman, Mary Ellen Mark, and Daniel Mordzinski, with an emphasis on the fundamentals of composition.

Students will complete portrait assignments in teams, creating diverse outcomes, and then come together as a class to critique the work. By the end, students will understand how to shape an environment using focal length, manipulate natural light to direct the viewer’s eye, and choose impactful camera angles.

Refer to the Materials List for materials students should bring to the workshop.

About the Instructor

Ron Amato is a Professor in the Photography and Related Media Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. In addition to his extensive career in commercial photography, Ron has published three monographs, and his work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. His most recent book, Artists of Provincetown (2024), is a collection of eighty-four portraits of artists with strong connections to Provincetown, Massachusetts, created over an eight-year period. This work culminated in an exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in the summer of 2024. Ron holds a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, NYC, and an MFA in New Media Art and Performance from Long Island University.