The Well-Realized Book
withChristian Patterson
TICKET COST - $5450
Join photographer and bookmaker Raymond Meeks in a workshop that will work with alumni to mix chance with choice to allow for surprising interventions and discoveries in the process of making. You will be crafting objects with silver gelatin and silver halide prints made from digital negatives; Carbon inkjet prints made on repurposed paper; and disassembled books.
This five-day, studio-based workshop in Portland, Maine with acclaimed photographic bookmaker Christian Patterson focuses on the often complex process of photographic bookmaking and the art of visual structure. Participants should arrive with photographic projects in development, and are strongly encouraged to bring work with some conceptual and narrative grounding. They should also be prepared to experiment with new approaches to editing, sequence, layout, and design.
In the workshop, participants will make a short initial presentation of their work, introduce concepts and narratives at play, share existing challenges, and state their own workshop goals. Patterson will share his own books and presentations on bookmaking, photographic sequencing, visual structure, and share methods for simplifying the often complex bookmaking process. Participants will be challenged to apply the approaches to their work in progress. All of this will be done with a view to connecting with and complementing the conceptual and narrative elements at play in each participants’ work.
There will be much hands-on work editing, sequencing, and establishing the visual structure of each individual book project. Patterson will work closely with each participant as they strive to find best approaches to shaping and structuring their work in book form. Participants may produce rudimentary dummies during the workshop, and will work closely with Patterson to develop detailed plans for next steps in their work’s development, including dummies and maquettes to be produced in the weeks or months following the workshop.
On the final evening, participants will make a second presentation of their work reflecting on the workshop experience and any resulting new approaches or developments in their work going forward.
“Raymond Meeks guided us with patience and precision, helping each of us transform our overwhelming projects into clear, poetic objects. His feedback was specific, thoughtful, and grounded in experience, making us feel both understood and supported in an almost nurturing way. ”
“Ray is a treasure. I came in to the class stuck in a creative rut, with a body of work I loved but just didn’t know how to finish. Ray’s insight and guidance was exactly what I needed, and I left not only with a book that ranks among my favorite works I’ve ever created but more inspired and excited to make new work than I had been in years.”
“Ray nurtured my creativity without ever imposing his view of what the project should be. Instead, he, along with the other participants, encouraged me to look deeply inside myself and the work to develop my own perspective on what I was trying to communicate through my images. I was prompted to search deeply within myself for answers to the questions I was asking. I am grateful to Ray and the Chico Review community for their support and encouragement. ”
About Christian Patterson
Christian Patterson’s conceptually grounded, narratively driven, and visually layered work has been described as a novelistic, subjective documentary of the historical past, and often deals with themes of the authorship, memory, place and time. Photographs are the heart of his multidisciplinary work, which includes drawings, paintings, objects, video and sound.
Patterson is the author of four books: Sound Affects (2008), Redheaded Peckerwood (2011, Recontres d’Arles Author Book Award), Bottom of the Lake (2015, shortlist, Aperture-Paris Photo Book of the Year), and Gong Co. (2024). He is a Guggenheim Fellow (2013), winner of the Grand Prix Images Vevey (2015) a New York Public Library Picture Collection Artist Fellow (2022), and James Castle House Resident (2023).
His work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), J. Paul Getty Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and his books are in many institutional artist book collections. Patterson has lectured, mentored, and taught widely and has led over 15 workshops throughout North America and Europe.
*Each Alumni Ticket includes all of the regular privileges you’d expect: access to daily artist lectures, daily catered meals, panel discussions, evening programming, and more.
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