Tuesdays

July 8 - August 19 (skipping August 5)

6 - 8:30 PM

Class Size Max: 8

This 6-week course invites students to rethink portraiture—both in their own work and through the lens of historical and contemporary practices. Through class discussions, readings, and photographic assignments, participants are prompted to think about the body as a sculptural form, pushing past traditional notions of portrait photography. Emphasis will be placed on creating unique images that engage with form, light, and desire. The curriculum highlights the contributions of underrepresented photographers from marginalized communities, examining how their perspectives have shaped the evolution of portraiture. Students will learn how these artists have used their experiences to represent intimacy while redefining and challenging the portrayal of the body beyond labels. Weekly prompts will guide creative exploration, with opportunities for peer and instructor feedback to refine and deepen each student’s work.

If your desired tuition option is unavailable, please email info@penumbrafoundation.org and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the entire class is sold out, we can add you to the waitlist.

Jeanette Spicer makes photographs, creates performative videos, works with mixed media and is curious about photography’s limitations. As a lesbian, and as a woman, her work is about the experience of what it means to occupy a sexualized, objectified, and underrepresented personhood.

She received her MFA from Parsons The New School in 2013. She attended Vermont Studio Center, The Wassaic Project, and Benaco Arte in Italy, among other residencies. She was a 2024 Penumbra Foundation Workspace Artist in Residence. Her first monograph, Sea(see) was published in 2018 by Kris Graves Projects, and her second, To the Ends of the Earth was published by GOST Books in Fall 2024. She has shown my work in various exhibitions, and has had her photographs shown in publications such as New York Times, New York Magazine, New Yorker, and Vogue. She is co-editor of a dyke publication (2019-current), WMN, showcasing art and poetry by marginalized communities of lesbians.

Images ©Jeanette Spicer