Eddie Adams Workshop Tips and Advice

Will is getting ready to apply for the Eddie Adams workshop, a super exclusive and prestigious four-day retreat of 100 photographers who are either students or have less than three years professional experience. The deadline is Friday so I sent Will’s photo submission to a couple of friends, Danny Ghitis and Celia Tobin, who both have gone.

Danny had some great pointers but Celia wrote back with a treatise as well as her take on Will’s photos that I have lightly edited below. It would do anyone looking to apply to ANY art program some good to read over Celia’s thoughts on a cohesive vision.

So I think the key to Eddie Adams (after several attempts) in consistency in vision. Strong photos are obviously qualification 1, but it’s not good enough to have a bunch of strong photos that wander through a few styles. And “vision” in this case is quite literal. I found that most people there got in with a style that practically had a signature, so much so that even if you submitted only singles, those singles fit together in aesthetic so well that you could mistake them for an essay. It sounds lame, but things as literal as tonal values, saturation, color hues and the intensity of light are the simplest methods of trying to put something cohesive together.

Will looks like he’s sorting through the photographer he’d like to be, as most of us are in varying stages. My personal suggestion would be to keep his submission as tightly edited as possible. I think you’re allowed to upload 10 images max (if I’m remembering that right), but it’s always best to add one-by-one only what will help you. “you’re only as good as your weakest image” sorta thing, bla bla bla. I definitely think his 10,000 miles story is the strongest collection he has. Will seems to do best with graphic elements, color, etc. If I were him, that’s the style direction I’d take my submission in.

If there’s one thing both Danny and I have learned (especially since working on this project in Poland), and constantly talk about, it’s that strength comes in consistent vision, no matter what you’re editing for. And what REALLY sucks is that sometimes this means sacrificing images you LOVE because they simply don’t fit. Tight, tight, tight with a signature is the key. Danny for example is planning on totally re-editing his website when we get home. And possibly taking down some of the essays (even strong ones) because they’re not helping him to shape the style he wants to convey to editors. Case in point, I LOVE Will’s herding pic from Mongolia in the snow, its’ one of my favorites. But I think it would just be confusing to throw in there with the rest of the images I mentioned.

Celia Tobin loves this shot, but in the context of a cohesive portfolio it didn't make Will's cut.

Ok, this is reeeeeeally long. It’s pretty clear that I enjoy editing (other people’s work that is, editing your own is always the hardest) (: I’m going to shut up now. It’s all just food for thought, but I hope it helps. I am quite certain though that what matters most to the EAW judges is seeing that a photographer has a style and a vision and can produce work that calls out their name, even before you read the byline.

Will is getting ready to apply for the Eddie Adams workshop, a super exclusive and prestigious four-day retreat of 100 photographers who are either students or have less than three years professional experience. The deadline is Friday so I sent Will's photo submission to a couple of friends, Danny Ghitis and Celia Tobin, who ...