Instructors

Jason Andrescavage

Course Topics: Darkroom Printing, Portraits and Toning

Biography

I am concerned with photography that tells stories, relates experiences, and reveals people as dynamic subjects. Drawing my inspiration from legacy styles and processes, my goal with portraiture is to portray universal struggles with a sense of larger-than-life urgency. In my work I strive to depict my subjects in ways that simultaneously expose more than the everyday facade, yet also allude to further barriers left standing. I am equally concerned with what is being hidden from view as what is being shown. People interact with the world through the measured use of overt mannerisms and hidden thoughts. My aim is to take account of the evidence of this balancing act.

I have been creating photographs for 10 years, concentrating on traditional film and wet darkroom techniques. I am an alumni of the photography program at City College of San Francisco, and in January of 2014 I earned a Masters Degree in Photography from Kingston University, London. My personal practice centers on portraiture and fashion, and when not creating photographs I am a photography and darkroom teacher.

Allan Barnes

Course Topics: Wet Plate Collodion, Cyanotype.

Biography

Allan Barnes grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where he worked as a photojournalist. He was a contributing photographer to the New York Times, Detroit Free Press, Spin, and Metropolis Magazine. He has worked as a photographer for over three decades, occasionally holding jobs with corporate and lifestyle publications. He has also worked as a freelance photojournalist and voice-over artist in Mexico DF, Mexico. He has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Spanish Language and Literature from Wayne State University, Detroit Michigan and a Master of Arts Degree in Photography from Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. Besides residing in Detroit, he has lived in Los Angeles, CA, Santa Rosa, CA,  Mexico City, Mexico,  Guam (an island colonized by the United States in the Western Pacific Ocean) and Valencia, Spain.

He has exhibited his work nationally, most recently in Pershing Square, a public park and art space in Downtown Los Angeles (October 2013). Prior to that, a solo show of his tintypes was held at the POV Evolving Gallery in Los Angeles (Fall 2011) as well as in a small group show featuring his “Digital Daguerreotypes” at the Lois Lambert Gallery in Santa Monica (Fall 2011). Barnes began working with historical processes in 2006, after his favorite Polaroid Film, Type 55, was destined for extinction. After moving to California late in 2006, he began to do most of his work using antique photo processes. Allan Barnes conducts workshops in 19th Century Wet-Plate photography. He also does commissioned tintype and ambrotype portraits.

Allan Barnes has worked largely as a photography educator since 2004, and teaches photography classes at Petaluma High School (Petaluma, CA)  and the Los Angeles Center of Photography. He has previously taught at Washtenaw Community College, (Ann Arbor, Michigan)  Citrus College, (Glendora, CA) Santa Monica College and Santa Monica High School (Santa Monica, CA).

Tim Baskerville

Course Topics: Night Photography, Mare Island, Light Painting

Biography

Tim Baskerville, B.F.A., received his degree in photography and liberal arts from the University of San Francisco. He has been photographing for more than 25 years, and currently teaches night photography at U.C. Berkeley Extension in San Francisco and Berkeley, U.C. Santa Cruz. and the College of Marin. He has taught at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, Boston; RayKo Photo Center, San Francisco; and the Cape Cod Photographic Workshops on Cape Cod.

Tim has written articles about Night Photography for Camera and Darkroom, the Friends of Photography with Nazraeli Press, and Photo Metro magazine. He originally curated The Nocturnes, a Night Photography exhibit, in 1991, and founded the subsequent critically acclaimed Web site – www.thenocturnes.com – in 1996. In addition to workshops and classes in California, he conducts a photographic workshop to the West of Ireland, once a year. His work has received many awards, and has appeared in numerous publications and exhibitions in this country and abroad.

Spencer Brown

Course Topics: Lighting, Portraiture, Landscape

Biography

Spencer Aldworth Brown has photographed thousands of people. His assignments have ranged from rocket scientists to the founder of YouTube, doctors, lawyers, chefs, priests, jackalopes, partying flight attendants, politicians, and artists. He specializes in journalism, food photography and the environmental portrait where his subject is photographed on location with both natural and studio lighting.

His work has been published in: Time Magazine, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, Business Week, Fast Company, Discovery Channel, Canadian Geographic, PBS NewsHour, Surfer’s Journal, Esquire, Newsweek, Forbes, Women’s Wear Daily, Rolling Stone

He was formerly the staff photographer at the San Francisco Business Times where his work was published in every issue between 2003 and 2014. He lives near the beach in The City with his wife and their dog ‘Rat-eatin’ Pete.

RE Casper

Course Topics: Lightroom, Street Photography

Biography

My name is RE Casper. I was born and raised in rural Southern Illinois began my path in the arts in 2001.

Growing up in the midwest, I was the art director of an international vehicle graphics company and later moved to Chicago, IL to become more familiar with photographing the human element.

I now live in northern California, specializing professionally in street and documentary photography, architecture/real estate, live events, products and fine art photography. I also teach workshops on street photography and Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop to curious and passionate photographers locally and abroad.

In addition to my photography, I produce and co-host the photography podcast, StreetPX. Focused on interviewing street photographers, documentary photographers and photojournalists from around the world. We conduct full length discussions centered on the artist, inspiration, the craft, gear, current news and random topics every other week.

Check out the show on StreetPXiTunesGoogle Play MusiciHeartRadio and many more services.

Sophie Gibbings

Course Topics: Book Making, Pinhole

Biography

Sophie Gibbings is a photographer from Santa Barbara, California. She spent her summers in Maine where she learned how to darkroom print at the Maine Media Workshops and College. She learned alternative processes from her mentor, Christopher James in Santa Fe and Boston. She received her BFA in photography from Lesley University College of Art and Design (formally The Art Institute of Boston). Her primary foundation is based in traditional black and white printing, but she is also interested in alternative process, primarily wet plate collodion. The human connection to a landscape and the return to nature are themes prevalent in her work.

Chris Gould

Course Topics: Darkroom, Black and White Printing

Biography

Chris Gould is a photographer from Santa Rosa, California who has enjoyed taking pictures since he was a little kid. He studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and works in the black and white analog tradition -finding joy in the craft as well as the results. Chris has worked as a clerk and darkroom tech at the Harvey Milk Photo Center for 3 years. He currently teaches Part One and Part Two of the Black and White Photography and Darkroom class.

David J. Gubernick

Course Topics: Lightroom Classic

Biography

My approach to photography is derived from my love of Nature and is based upon my emotional response to the beauty that I see. I strive for an artistic rendering to reveal the magnificence and miracle of life in its intimate details and grand landscapes. For me, photographing grand landscapes is primarily about the quality of light and the feeling of awe and wonder I experience in the midst of such sweeping beauty. Photographing close-up is a form of meditation for me as I become more focused, concentrated, and enter deeper into an often-unseen universe of vibrant colors and extraordinary patterns that literally takes my breath away. The world stands still, and I am at peace. Photographing close-up, it is possible to transform the seemingly ordinary to extraordinary. By sharing these intimate moments, through images that give form to feelings, I hope you experience a similar moment of wonder and delight, a gentle reminder of the ever present possibility of expanding our awareness to embrace the beauty and magic that surrounds us.

Najib Joe Hakim

Course Topics: Instructional Photo Walks, Portraiture

Biography

Najib Joe Hakim works as a freelance photographer and photojournalist in San Francisco. His work has been published in numerous national and regional magazines and newspapers. He has exhibited his personal work in galleries on both coasts and internationally. His most recent project – Born Among Mirrors: Lebanon 50 Years After – completed its third exhibition in November 2012. The project began as an exploration of war-ravaged Lebanon. Through a combination of coincidence and personal tragedy, it became a journey through Hakim’s own family history from refugees out of Palestine to American citizenship. Born Among Mirrors provides insights into one immigrant family’s successful survival through arguably the most intractable conflict of the last 100 years.

Margot Hartford

Course Topics: Composition, Lifestyle, Portraiture, and Interiors

Biography

Margot Hartford has been a commercial photographer in the Bay Area for over 20 years. Her work includes lifestyle, portraiture and interiors. Clients include Oracle, VISA, UCSF, and the United Way. Interior clients include architects, interiors designers, various shelter magazines and Houzz.

Susanna (Suzun) Lucia Lamaina

Course Topics: Exploring Composition, Compelling Dynamic Portraits

Biography

Susanna (Suzun) Lucia Lamaina received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in Photography and her MA from San Francisco State University in Photography and Interdisciplinary Arts.

A former colleague and student of noted Farm Security Administration photographer John Collier, Jr., Susanna is an independent scholar, photo historian, social documentary photographer and educator. She had been teaching photography for 35 years.

Susanna has taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the Art and Design Extension program, the Walnut Creek Civic Arts Program, the Palo Alto Art Center, the San Francisco Art Institute and at Santa Reparata International School of Art (professor and director of the Photography department) in Florence, Italy.

Her photographs have been published in numerous catalogs, she exhibits nationally and internationally. Susanna’s photographs are held in private collections including the Special Collections Division of the Green Library at Stanford University.

In October 2016, Susanna self-published her first photography book of contemporary portraits on former members of the Black Panther Party titled: Revolutionary Grain: Celebrating the Spirit of the Black Panthers in Portraits and Stories.

John Longyear

Course Topics: Digital Printing

Biography

John Longyear is a photographer and video artist from Newbury Park, California. He learned how to print in his home darkroom and graduated with a BA in visual arts from the University of California Santa Cruz. His primary foundation is based in traditional black and white printing, but he is interested in pushing the boundaries apparent in the intersection of darkroom and digital practices.

Chrissy Lynn

Course Topics: Portraiture, Lighting, Location Photography

Biography

Chrissy Lynn is a lifestyle, fashion and portrait photographer recognized for her effortless, approachable style, her creative candor and insightful collaborations. She is often commissioned to shoot advertising and editorial campaigns, website and marketing collateral, studio fashion and brand lookbooks. Her photography style is light, intimate, authentic and offbeat.

Chrissy Lynn’s work over the last decade has earned recognition from the APA, PDN, OneEyeland and continued client relations with numerous fashion and technology companies, publications and ad agencies. 

Chrissy Lynn holds a MFA in Fine Art Photography. Her teaching style is experiential – balancing concept with hands-on technique, and thought-provoking – tapping into your inner artist. 

Georgina Reskala

Course Topics: Creative Inquiry, Poetics of Space, Portfolio Review

Biography

Holds a BFA in photography and an MFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco CA. Her work has been shown in Portland, San Francisco, Oakland,Santa Monica, Barcelona, Mexico City. She has taught art classes to young adults. Has curated exhibitions for her students for Incline gallery in San Francisco. Recently was invited to be a judge for a national Art competition for children at the Bergamot Station in Santa Monica.

Georgina Reskala

Course Topics: Creative Inquiry, Poetics of Space, Portfolio Review

Biography

Holds a BFA in photography and an MFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco CA. Her work has been shown in Portland, San Francisco, Oakland,Santa Monica, Barcelona, Mexico City. She has taught art classes to young adults. Has curated exhibitions for her students for Incline gallery in San Francisco. Recently was invited to be a judge for a national Art competition for children at the Bergamot Station in Santa Monica.

Andrei Riskin

Course Topics: DSLR Camera

Biography

Andrei Riskin was born in Moscow, Russia. Continuing family tradition in visual arts he graduated with Master’s degree in 1997 and started his career in photography in 2000.

Andrei works in a photographic form that is neither classic wedding portraiture nor photojournalism, but a sophisticated extension of both. The result is a photo essay (or rather a poem) that tells the story of your wedding. Complemented by original audio recording this story is unique, intimate, and beautiful. His approach to wedding photography is to capture things as they happen naturally. That way bride and groom, and everyone else can really enjoy the event. After all it’s not a photo session they gathered for, but a celebration of love!

Andrei also teaches classes that cover a wide range of subjects such as digital photography, lighting techniques, wedding and documentary photography at Harvey Milk Photo Center and Academy of Art University in San Francisco

Grant Rusk

Course Topics: Matting, Framing, Personal Style, Gallery Tour & Discussion

Biography

Grant Rusk received his a master’s degree in art from Cal State Fullerton in 1973. He came of age as a photographer in the early 1970s, when the importance and meaning of photography as a fine art was widely debated in the art world. Through the establishment of several important graduate programs in fine art photography at the University of California’s Los Angeles and Irvine campus as well as the California Institute of the Arts and California State University, Fullerton, Southern California began to attract national and international attention for the diversity of photo based artwork produced in the region. He was deeply influenced by an approach to landscape photography developed in Southern California that came to be known as “New Topographics”.

Rusk’s photographs have been included in numerous prestigious group exhibitions including: Seismic Shift: Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal and the California Landscape Photography 1944-1984, American Photography in the 1970’s, Discovering the River: Perspectives on the L.A. River Watershed, Landscape Now, Emerging Los Angeles Photographers, and Eight Los Angeles Photographers.

His Photographs are in the collections of the California Museum of Photography, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oakland Museum of California, Bancroft Library, George Eastman Museum, among others.

Quincy Stamper

For many years has been a passionate arts educator of Bay Area youth. He is a San Francisco based photographer eager to capture the moments in life through portraits and food. He has fallen in love with photography for many reasons, but mostly because he is able to build relationships through his work. These relationships and stories motivate him to look for new ways to inspire his creativity. He thanks God everyday for giving him persistence and patience to create work that he is proud to share with people like you! His portfolio will show you how much he enjoys to work on images that inspire and uplift others.  www.quincystamperphotography.com