Oaxaca, Mexico is a perfect portrait photography learning laboratory for a workshop. Her people are expressive, colorful and make great subjects for photographers. Yesterday morning, we gathered in the courtyard of El Diablo y La Sandia for a learning session with Matt Nager, our talented instructor from Denver, Colorado. Then, we went out on the street to practice what we learned.
After lunch, we went into the studio space of artist Mauricio Cervantes who is preparing for an upcoming exhibition in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, New York City. We posed Mauricio for a series of portraits that each of us took turns taking.
Here are my best shots of the day of Mauricio Cervantes:
And, my best street shots. [The difficult part for me was to go up to complete strangers and ask their permission to take their photographs, standing no more than 2 feet away from them. This requires establishing a relationship. That’s very different from using a telephoto lens and doing sleuth photography. Sometimes, I got turned down and just carried on.]
Next photography workshop is Oaxaca Photography Expedition: Market Towns and Artisan Villages this summer. If you are interested in the next Street and Portrait Photography Workshop with Matt Nager, send me an email.
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