Sustained Practice: Six-Month Critique Group w/ Lesly Deschler Canossi

IN PERSON MEETINGS:
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3: 2-5pm
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7: 2-5pm
*SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6: 2-5pm (Please note we will meet on a Sunday in December)
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9: 2-5pm
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6: 2-5pm
SATURDAY, MARCH 6: 2-5pm

ONLINE SESSIONS (optional):
MONDAY, OCTOBER 26: 7:30-9pm
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30: 7:30-9pm
MONDAY, DECEMBER 21: 7:30-9pm
MONDAY, JANUARY 25: 7:30-9pm
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22: 7:30-9pm

MAXIMUM ENROLLMENT: 12

TUITION: $380
CPW MEMBERS: $342

This six-month intensive critique group supports individual photographic projects while building community among artists through monthly in-person sessions that provide reflective spaces of inquiry, free from the hierarchy of traditional critiques. Facilitated by LESLY DESCHLER CANOSSI, whose extensive teaching experience brings clarity and depth to the creative process, the group invites participants to explore new directions in their work within a supportive environment.

To supplement project development and extend support between in-person sessions, a 1.5-hour online session will take place on a Monday evening each month. This additional virtual space is intended to further support participants’ work in progress, deepen discussions, and provide ongoing support while creating flexibility in scheduling.

Through shared observation and discussion, participants will refine their work, deepen dialogue within their practice, and gain valuable feedback on portfolios, books, or exhibitions. This space welcomes anyone actively engaged in artistic practice or working toward a creative goal.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
LESLY DESCHLER CANOSSI is a photography educator and writer. For over 14 years, she was a lead faculty member at the International Center of Photography, and she currently leads long-term critique groups for La Luz, CPW, and her independent project, Widening the Lens. Her extensive teaching experience, combined with years of technical expertise running Fiber Ink Studio—specializing in silver gelatin, analog Type-C, and wide-format pigment printing—provides the foundation that allows her to focus on supporting artists articulating their personal vision.

Lesly co-founded Women Picturing Revolution (2016–2022), an organization supporting women-identifying photographers documenting conflicts and crises in private and public spaces, and in 2026 she founded Into the Fold, a nine-month online program for artist mothers. In 2022, she co-edited Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing (Leuven University Press). Her personal artist practice centers on themes of care and grief, and her research recovers the contributions of women and marginalized practitioners long relegated to footnotes in photography's traditional narrative, a perspective she brings directly into her teaching.

Lesly lives in Beacon, New York, with her family on a micro homestead with honeybees.