Guest Instructors

Eric Meola

Eric Meola’s graphic use of color has informed his photographs and his distinguished career for more than four decades. His prints are in several private collections and museums, including the A.S.M.P. archive, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the International Center of Photography in New York, and the Museum of Modern Art in Munich. He has won numerous awards including the “Advertising Photographer of the Year” award from the American Society of Media Photographers.

In 1972 he photographed Haiti for Time magazine, resulting in one of his most famous images, “Coca Kid,” which was included in Life magazine’s special 1997 issue “100 Magnificent Images.” In 1980 he had his first major exhibit in New York at the “Space” gallery in Carnegie Hall and his signature red, white and blue image “Promised Land,” was chosen for inclusion in the permanent collection of the George Eastman House. In 1989 he was the only photographer named to Adweek magazine’s national “Creative All-Star Team”; and that same year he received a “Clio” for a series of images he made in Scotland for a breakthrough campaign featuring the outerwear clothing of the Timberland company. “Fire Eater,” his iconic image of the spotlit lips of a woman submerged in a tank of water, and commissioned by Almay cosmetics, was included in Robert Sobieszek’s 1993 book on advertising The Art of Persuasion.

As an undergraduate at Syracuse University, he studied color printing and color theory at the Newhouse School of Journalism before graduating in 1968 with a B.A. in English Literature and then moving to NYC in 1969 to work with Pete Turner as his studio manager. A Canon Explorer of Light, he has lectured extensively, including at Syracuse University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Brooks (Santa Barbara), the Art Center at Pasadena, Parsons, the Academy of Art College (San Francisco), the George Eastman House, and venues including PPA., WPPI, and A.S.M.P. He is also a member of the prestigious X-rite Colorati program.

In 2004, GRAPHIS published his first book The Last Places on Earth, a look at disappearing tribes and cultures throughout the world. An exhibition in England of his photographs of Bruce Springsteen, which coincided with the publication of his second book Born to Run: The Unseen Photos (Insight Editions, 2006), was followed in 2008 by INDIA: In Word & Image (Welcome Books, NY), and an exhibit of his India photographs in 2009 at the Art Directors Club of New York.

Constantly looking for unusual uses of color, Eric’s most recent work is from a trip he made in early 2011 to India to photograph Holi, the “festival of colors.” Showcasing a portfolio of his color images in its October 2008 issue, Rangefinder magazine referred to Eric as one of a “handful of color photographers who are true innovators.”

Teaching Philosophy

The first question I get asked is usually a generalized question about success, or how to succeed—or, even shorter, “tell me how to make it.” Success comes from failure, and that is one of the hardest things to understand and to accept. What I want you to walk away with is a sense of yourself, and your strengths. 99.9% of photographers hide within themselves, and make “safe” pictures that give us no sense of who they are, or what is unique about their vision. Call it “attitude,” or “direction,” or “vision,” or “style.” The images that “speak” to us are the ones that have an attitude so unique that they burn into our minds forever. All the photographs I grew up admiring were taken with manual focus lenses, without auto exposure, and on film. I’m as much a gear junkie as the next photographer, but the photographs of many of my heroes were taken on ISO 10 Kodachrome. Ernst Haas, for instance, turned a negative into a positive, and shot his incredible studies of motion at 1/15th of a second, wide open on lenses that, today, would be thrown out. My goal is to help you form a sense of what it is you want to do with photography, to help you find your way of looking at the world, and to look at your subject from different viewpoints—both literally and emotionally. Photography is not about making images. It is about passion, and excitement at seeing something in a way you never saw it before.

What to expect from me…

Expect the unexpected. I’m here to be a friend, but also to rattle your cage. I believe in you—I believe in your ability to cut loose and surprise me. I don’t want to see photographs. I want to see an approach, a style, a mood, a vision, a sense of who you are. Or, as Ernst Haas said: ” I am not interested in shooting new things — I am interested to see things new.” I want to see your failures, for in your failures you may find the way to your best pictures. It is all about riddles, about finding your Zen, your place, your self. I am here to teach you to let go of your preconceptions, to go back to that first day when you fell in love with photography.

What I expect from you…

Magic. I want the unexpected. I want to see you redefine your way of looking at the world. A very tall order. Really? In one trip? Yes, really, in one trip. Again, I come back to Ernst Haas: “A picture is the expression of an impression. If the beautiful were not in us, how would we ever recognize it?” The world will change again tomorrow. There will be ever better equipment, whatever that means, and ever more strange words, like “histograms.” I don’t want to see your histograms. I want to see an image I have never seen before, that “talks” to me, that makes me see something you and I never realized was there. Got it?

Arthur Meyerson

Arthur Meyerson is recognized as one of America’s finest photographers. Arthur travels throughout the world photographing for advertising, corporate, and editorial clients. He is a three-time winner of Adweek’s “Southwest Photographer of the Year” award, is on Communication World’s list of the world’s top 10 corporate photographers and was named one of the 30 best advertising photographers by American Photo. In 1999, Arthur became a member of Nikon’s exclusive “Legends Behind the Lens”.

His awards are numerous including gold medals from the New York Art Directors Club, the Art Directors Club of Houston, the Dallas Society of Visual Communications and the prestigious Stephen Kelly Award for his work on the Nike advertising campaign. He was honored by the Houston Advertising Federation as the inaugural recipient of the Only In Houston award for individuals “whose creativity and passion for his art have brought recognition to the city of Houston”. In 2008, the Houston Design Center named him as the first recipient of photography in their annual Stars Of Design celebration.

Besides his commercial work, Arthur’s fascination with light, color and the moment continues and has culminated into an impressive body of personal work as well. His photographs are in the public collections of several major institutions and have been exhibited internationally. He and his work have been profiled in many publications including Communication Arts, Rangefinder, Camera Arts, Graphis, Digital Photo Pro, Zoom (France), Portfolio, Idea (Japan), Novum (Germany), Photo World (China), and Fotodigital (Portugal).
A highly sought after workshop instructor and mentor, Arthur teaches photography workshops, does individual mentoring and participates in speaking engagements throughout the U.S. and abroad. He is on the Board of Advisors for the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops and is a former member of the Advisory Council for the Santa Fe Center for Photography and the Houston Center for Photography.

Read a conversation between Arthur Meyerson and John Paul Caponigro here.

View a video interview of Arthur Meyerson here.

Learn more about Arthur Meyerson here.

Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy is simple… to guide, challenge and inspire you into fulfilling your photographic goals. In doing this I want to help you develop your individual way of seeing… to help you define your own “visual fingerprint”.

What to expect from me…
Honesty, encouragement and frankness. For me, photography is a process of discovery. Not only a discovery of what you select to shoot but how you select to do it. Through critiques and discussions, I will work to try and help you strengthen your style as well as help you increase your sensitivity to light and it’s relationship to color. And, how best to record it.

What I expect of you…
Passion, commitment and a willingness to try new things. A workshop is a brief, intense learning experience. Like anything else, it will only be as good as what you put into it. But if you come prepared to work…. the fun will follow. Stepping out of your comfort zone will only enhance your ability move toward your next step. If all goes as planned by the end of our time together, we should all be drained physically and emotionally, but much better for it.

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