A Two-Day Workshop on Personal Vision
with photographic artist Dennis Church
July 2 & 3, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. each day, $140
LIMITED TO 12 REGISTRANTS
Most photography workshops begin with the camera. This one doesn’t! So, this intensive time can be instructive to all visual artists.
Cameras are only tools. They are remarkably sophisticated today— in fact, technique has become almost irrelevant for many situations. Exposure, focus, and color are handled beautifully by the machines we carry in our pockets as well as the much more expensive ones.
Which is good news.
Because when the technical worries fade away, something more important can move to the front of the stage:
What and how you see! And maybe why you see the way you do.
This workshop is not about equipment. You do not need a fancy camera. A phone camera is more than enough. What matters here is not megapixels or lenses but attention—what catches your eye, what stops you, what you find yourself returning to repeatedly.
Why does one person photograph an empty parking lot while another walks right past it?
Why does a painter become obsessed with a certain color, a shape, pattren, a patch of light on a wall?
Why do some images stay with us long after we’ve seen them?
These questions point toward something deeper than technique. They point toward personal vision.
Over two days at Art Farm Iowa we will explore that territory—the quiet place where perception, curiosity, memory, and intuition come together. The goal is not to make “pretty pictures.” The goal is to discover what you are naturally drawn to and begin to understand why. The workshop will have brief lectures, discussions and assignments which we will review digitally and discuss as a group.
Participants will photograph anywhere they choose and then gather for conversations about what they saw and what pulled them toward it. Rather than technical critique, we will look for patterns: recurring interests, visual curiosities, and the beginnings of an artist’s personal language.
The ideas in this workshop apply not only to photographers but to painters and other visual artists as well. Cameras, brushes, and sketchbooks are simply different tools for the same act: learning about your personal vision.
We will explore:
• How personal vision begins with attention
• Why meaningful work often starts with curiosity and obsession rather than ideas
• How to recognize visual threads already present in your work
• Moving beyond “good pictures” toward authentic ones
• The role of accidents, intuition, and discovery in the creative process
• How your own life quietly shapes what you notice
Often the clues to an artist’s direction are already present in the work they are making—like footprints in fresh dirt.
This workshop is about learning to notice those footprints.
Though the workshop lasts only two days, the principles explored during this concentrated time can become a foundation for a lifetime of exploration—a way of continually discovering and refining your own personal vision as an artist.
Bring any digital camera you like, or just your phone’s camera if that’s what you use. Bring curiosity above all.
No fancy equipment required.
Just your eyes.
And your way of seeing.
About Dennis
Dennis Church is an American photographer whose work transforms everyday moments into vibrant, graphic images. Raised on a small farm in rural Iowa, he began photographing in 1975 and has since exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally. His work appears in Bystander: A History of Street Photography, and his recent books include AMERICOLOR (2024) and DIRT FRESH (forthcoming in 2026). Church lives and works in Delray Beach, Florida, finding color, humor, and meaning in the ordinary. Dennis Church website.
A Two-Day Workshop on Personal Vision
with photographic artist Dennis Church
July 2 & 3, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. each day, $140
LIMITED TO 12 REGISTRANTS
Most photography workshops begin with the camera. This one doesn’t! So, this intensive time can be instructive to all visual artists.
Cameras are only tools. They are remarkably sophisticated today— in fact, technique has become almost irrelevant for many situations. Exposure, focus, and color are handled beautifully by the machines we carry in our pockets as well as the much more expensive ones.
Which is good news.
Because when the technical worries fade away, something more important can move to the front of the stage:
What and how you see! And maybe why you see the way you do.
This workshop is not about equipment. You do not need a fancy camera. A phone camera is more than enough. What matters here is not megapixels or lenses but attention—what catches your eye, what stops you, what you find yourself returning to repeatedly.
Why does one person photograph an empty parking lot while another walks right past it?
Why does a painter become obsessed with a certain color, a shape, pattren, a patch of light on a wall?
Why do some images stay with us long after we’ve seen them?
These questions point toward something deeper than technique. They point toward personal vision.
Over two days at Art Farm Iowa we will explore that territory—the quiet place where perception, curiosity, memory, and intuition come together. The goal is not to make “pretty pictures.” The goal is to discover what you are naturally drawn to and begin to understand why. The workshop will have brief lectures, discussions and assignments which we will review digitally and discuss as a group.
Participants will photograph anywhere they choose and then gather for conversations about what they saw and what pulled them toward it. Rather than technical critique, we will look for patterns: recurring interests, visual curiosities, and the beginnings of an artist’s personal language.
The ideas in this workshop apply not only to photographers but to painters and other visual artists as well. Cameras, brushes, and sketchbooks are simply different tools for the same act: learning about your personal vision.
We will explore:
• How personal vision begins with attention
• Why meaningful work often starts with curiosity and obsession rather than ideas
• How to recognize visual threads already present in your work
• Moving beyond “good pictures” toward authentic ones
• The role of accidents, intuition, and discovery in the creative process
• How your own life quietly shapes what you notice
Often the clues to an artist’s direction are already present in the work they are making—like footprints in fresh dirt.
This workshop is about learning to notice those footprints.
Though the workshop lasts only two days, the principles explored during this concentrated time can become a foundation for a lifetime of exploration—a way of continually discovering and refining your own personal vision as an artist.
Bring any digital camera you like, or just your phone’s camera if that’s what you use. Bring curiosity above all.
No fancy equipment required.
Just your eyes.
And your way of seeing.
About Dennis
Dennis Church is an American photographer whose work transforms everyday moments into vibrant, graphic images. Raised on a small farm in rural Iowa, he began photographing in 1975 and has since exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally. His work appears in Bystander: A History of Street Photography, and his recent books include AMERICOLOR (2024) and DIRT FRESH (forthcoming in 2026). Church lives and works in Delray Beach, Florida, finding color, humor, and meaning in the ordinary. Dennis Church website.
