Home of the Photography Workshop

For the first twenty years of his photographic life, Charles Harbutt was a photojournalist, working mostly through Magnum Photos (of which he was twice president). He covered the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and worked for, among others, Life, Look, Paris Match, Stern, Epoca, Newsweek. Since 1980, he has increasingly pursued more personal interests in photography. In 1981 he founded Archive Pictures Inc., an international co-operative. Two books and one monograph have been published of his work: Progreso: Navarin Editeur, 1986, Charles Harbutt: I Grandi Fotografi: Editoriale Fabbri, Milan, Italy: 1983, Travelog: MIT Press, 1974. Arles award: Best photographic book of 1974.

He worked and exhibited with Andre Kertesz (Sympathetic Images - exhibit and book). His group shows and publications include American Images, The Plan for New York and America in Crisis.
His pictures have been widely collected at (among others) the Museum of Modern Art, the Corcoran Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. He is represented in New York by the Laurence Miller Gallery.
He has been guest artist for a year each at the Rhode Island School of Design, MIT and the Art Institute of Chicago and taught at Cooper Union, Parsons, Pratt Institute, Bard College and in numerous workshops here and abroad. He is currently Professor of Photography at Parsons.

A special privilege, 6 days working with one of the world’s leading
thinkers about, and makers of photographs. Genuinely life changing!
You will, by a series of illustrated talks and projects, break down Photography into its components and then rebuild them in a personal way. Here’s Charles’ introduction…

"In art, you’re always on your own. All the powers that be in photography can’t tell you what pictures to make or like, unless you let them. They can only tell you what they like about what’s already been done. But photography, like any art, moves forward when people break rules, make new ones or ignore all that.

Picasso talked about painting against the history of painting; that is concentrating more on what had been left out of great paintings rather than what was in them. But making pictures just to fill in the gaps in photography’s history could be a dry, academic exercise. What’s missing from history is not just some new technical or intellectual idea, but you - your work, your instincts, your particular way of putting the medium together, the juices of your unique personality.

The great French mime teacher, Le Coq, divided his course into two parts. The first year was spent learning technique, mastering the tools of mime: gesture and movement, costume and make-up. Second year students used these techniques to define their individual clowns: how they looked, dressed and felt. The final exam brought all the student clowns on stage. Le Coq would shake his fist at the group or blow them a kiss; each clown would respond differently and in character.

For photographers, the problem is much the same: first of all to make photographic understanding and technique instinctive; then, to integrate all into a personal imagery. The biggest obstacle for students is the transition from trying to make ‘good photographs’, like other people’s photographs, to developing an awareness of, and trust in, their own instincts, to making their own photographs.

Whether your goal is aesthetic, professional or simply to have fun on weekends, the route is the same. If you are to endure as a photographer, your pictures must first of all give you pleasure. That pleasure will continue and increase to the extent that the images bear your unique stamp."

..... probably the most exciting period you’ll ever have in photography!

Publications include the remarkable Travelog , which won the Arles award for best photographic book of 1974. Progresso a photo essay on the Yucatan - and life - was published in 1984.

"Reality simply stated is the most mysterious"

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