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From Image to Impact: Creating a Photo Essay for Publication


  • Contact Photo 51 Porter Avenue Brooklyn, NY, 11237 United States (map)

Faces of Deportation for Rolling Stones - Federica Valabrega

Are you enthusiastic about crafting a compelling photo essay and presenting it to an editor or publication? Are you looking to refine your editing skills to effectively convey your narrative?

Join photojournalist and visiting professor, Federica Valabrega, and a dynamic community of like-minded aspiring photographers for an intensive 2-day workshop. This hands-on experience is tailored to enhance your proficiency in editing, sequencing, and creating a cohesive thread throughout your images. Together, we'll produce a coherent, creative, and artistic photo essay, ready for submission to any professional publication of your choice.

Participate in this skill-building opportunity and connect with a community dedicated to the art of visual storytelling.

During the workshop, the teacher will cover:

  • How to sift through your images, organize, and choose the strongest, most evocative ones based on content, light, and framing.

  • How to properly sequence your images to effectively convey your intended message.

  • How to identify a common thread among all your images to create a cohesive photo essay.

  • How to write a pitch alongside the photo essay to prepare it for publication.

Classes will mainly take place in the studio, with a few exercises conducted outside on the streets, depending on the weather and temperatures.

This workshop is designed for individuals who already have a body of work and need assistance and an additional perspective in editing, organizing their images, and determining the direction they want to take with the final content. Both digital and film images are welcomed as long as they are in print or digital format, allowing everyone to effectively review them.

  • Saturday December 16th, and Sunday December 17th.

    Saturday: 10am to 6pm with a break for lunch.

    • Teacher and Student introductions.

    • Exploring sources of inspiration.

    • What makes for a strong image?

    • How to sequence your images to create a successful photo essay.

    • Students will prepare a selections of their strongest work to present to the class on Sunday.

    Sunday: 10am to 6pm with a break for lunch.

    • Student Presentations and Critique.

    • Writing exercises to further develop their photo essay.

    • How to develop a pitch for your photo essay.

    • How to package your photo essay for delivery.

  • Federica Valabrega was born in Rome, Italy in 1983. She received her Bachelor of Science in Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2006 and her Master of Arts from American University in Washington, D.C. in 2008. Valabrega lived in New York City from 2010 until 2020, when she moved back to Rome, Italy. Her photographs have been published in: The New York Times Magazine, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, LA Times and Npr.org, Vanity Fair Italy, Vogue Italy, M Le Magazine du Monde, La Repubblica, L’Espresso, La Stampa, and Il Corriere della Sera.

    Valabrega's photography and personal projects both focus on people. Her fascination with humans – particularly those who find self-expression difficult in a world full of societal taboos – is rooted in her own unique and challenging experience as an Italian immigrant in a foreign country. Valabrega is interested in getting as close as possible to her subjects’ lives. She applies a narrative layer to the visual storytelling, portraying both the intrinsic beauty and the hidden controversies of her subjects in all of their complexity.

    In 2013 she published the photobook Daughters of the King, a documentary project on the role of women within the Orthodox Jewish communities in New York, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, and Paris. She exhibited this photo essay worldwide until 2017. She now works in Rome, Italy as an assignment photojournalist for The Washington Post and she does advertising campaigns for Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) (the Italian Railway System). She started teaching Digital Photography at John Cabot University in July 2022.

    View more of Federica’s work by visiting, www.federicavalabrega.com.

Prerequisite: For this workshop, it is recommended that students have some previous knowledge of Lightroom, Capture One, and/or Photoshop. They should also bring along a favorite photographer, photo book, or photo essay.

Students are required to bring a hard disk and their laptop to class, along with any digital equipment they may have. If students work with analog photography, they can bring along prints and/or scanned negatives to be selected from. We will collectively critique and review each student’s images daily.

Tuition: $299 with a Maximum of 12 students.
Early Bird Promo: $50 off if you sign up before July 8th.
Use code SUMMER2024 at checkout.

Minimum 5 Students required to conduct the class.

  • Dates and times subject to change. Contact Photo and NYC-SPC reserve the right to cancel or postpone classes. Students will receive a refund or credit towards future class.

    Class Rescheduling: In the event of a necessary rescheduling, participants will be notified promptly, and information about the new dates will be provided. Participants will have the option to attend the rescheduled class or receive a refund or credit towards a future class.

    Participant Withdrawal: If a participant needs to withdraw from the workshop for personal reasons, the following refund policy applies:

    More than 30 days before the workshop begins: 100% refund.

    Between 29 and 8 days before the workshop begins: 50% refund.

    Within 7 days of the workshop: NO refund.

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July 13

Hit the Streets with Jorge Garcia! An introductory class in the art of street photography.

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August 17

CONEY ISLAND WEEKEND WORKSHOP