Attention! (Photo-counterpoint) with Penelope Umbrico (In-Person Learning – Three Sessions)
- Friday
February 5, 2027
9:00 am - 5:00 pm - Saturday
February 6, 2027
9:00 am - 5:00 pm - Sunday
February 7, 2027
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Slow down, look closely, and discover how sustained observation can transform the way you see. Join Reservoir mentor and celebrated artist for a deep dive into looking, drawing-based exercises, discussions, and immersive experiences that will shift how you see and position your own work.
Three Sessions
Tuition: $1,295 (Become a Member today and receive 5% – 20% off!)
Limited to 12 Students
© Photo by Penelope Umbrico
About
In-Person Learning
“In 1982 I traveled to Europe for the first time. I spent 3 months in Italy. I was 24. There were no smart phones. Point and shoots weren’t ubiquitously available then, and digital was a long way off. I had a simple 35 mm Nikon then (still do), but I decided to draw everything that I wanted to capture. What I remember: EVERYTHING I drew.”
—Penelope Umbrico
This workshop explores what happens when we slow down, resist instant capture, and commit to sustained observation. Through a series of guided exercises, participants will spend extended periods of time with places, objects, artworks, and everyday situations, discovering how sustained observation transforms not only what we see, but how we perceive and understand it.
Drawing serves as a model for this process. Unlike photography’s instantaneous shutter, drawing unfolds over time, requiring the eye to trace every contour and relationship. We will use drawing solely as a process to tune our sensory perception, without concern for the end product. This sustained attention is a way to gain empathy and deep connection with what you are observing. It will reveal structures, patterns, and connections that often go unnoticed.
Over three days, we will engage in exercises that cultivate sustained attention. Readings and discussions will frame broader questions about attention, care, presence, and the ways contemporary technologies shape our experience of time, place, and one another.
This workshop is an invitation to practice attention as a creative, critical, and deeply human act. No drawing experience is necessary.
Penelop Umbrico’s multimedia works utilize search engines and web platforms as an expansive archive to explore the production and consumption of images and objects. Engaging consumer software applications and the physical apparatuses of technology, her work considers our mediated experience of the world through the lens and the screen. Umbrico’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented in museum collections around the world. She is the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, and a Sharpe-Walentas Studio Fellowship. Her monographs have been published by Aperture NYC and RVB Books Paris.
Details
- Three Sessions
- Dates: Friday-Sunday, February 5-7, 2027, 9 am – 5 pm
- Enrollment Limit: 12 students
- Skill/Experience Level: Open to all levels
- Tuition: $1,295 (Become a Member today and receive 5% – 20% off!)
- Location: Downtown Los Angeles (LACP Headquarters), 252 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles, California, 90012
- Nearby Lodging: The Miyako Hotel – 328 E. First Street Los Angeles, California, 90012, United States, The Double-Tree by Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles Downtown – 120 South Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles, California, 90012, USA
- Not Included: Meals, snacks, bottled water and transportation (to and from the workshop location). Students are encouraged to bring their own food or order from nearby restaurants. Ride share apps or public transit are recommended for those without transportation. Students will be notified of food and parking options in the area.
NOTE: This is classified as a “Special Guest/Master Photographer” workshop. We advise you to read the “Special Guest/Master Photographer Refund Policy” HERE before enrolling.