Paying Close Attention w/ Caleb Stein

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17: 10–5pm

MAXIMUM ENROLLMENT: 10

TUITION: $275
CPW MEMBER TUITION: $248
20% OFF SCHOLARSHIP: $220 

Attention, Simone Weil wrote, is the rarest and purest form of generosity. This workshop looks at it also as a raw material, as an artist's greatest resource, and as a strategy for making provocative work that surprises both its maker and its audience. What happens when a photographer commits to one place or subject over years, staying with it until initial perception enriches and widens? Caleb Stein opens by sharing his new book Down by the Hudson (Palo Gallery Press, 2026), made over more than a decade at a swimming hole in the Hudson Valley, discussing the questions, accidents, rituals and returns that shaped it. The group will look closely at artists who practice this kind of sustained looking, including Justine Kurland, Carrie Mae Weems, Guido Guidi, Masahisa Fukase, and Brea Souders. The afternoon turns to participants' work: group critiques center on close readings of individual photographs and on formal strategies that bring each photographer nearer to the questions driving their work. Photographers may bring prints, an iPad or laptop, or share files in advance for projection; no formal presentation is required. The day closes with each participant articulating a single question to anchor a long-term project of their own.

WHAT TO BRING: Examples of your work, in whatever form feels best (can be laptop, files sent to instructor, prints, contact sheets, book dummy, wherever the participant is at with their work).

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
CALEB STEIN (b. 1994, UK) is an artist working in photography, video, installation, and artist books, engaging questions of community, perception, and memory. He frequently works as an artist duo with Andrea Orejarena and in close collaboration with a wide range of collectives. His work is held in the permanant collections of The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, among others and his artist books are held in institutional collections including MoMA, the Met, Harvard, Yale, and the Rijksmuseum. He has exhibited at FOAM, Deichtorhallen, MFAH, The Loeb, and Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, among other places, and has lectured at ICP, Vassar College, Penumbra Foundation, and Sotheby's Art Institute. Down by the Hudson, published this summer via Palo Gallery Press, is his fifth book, and will be released alongside solo exhibitions in New York, London, Paris, San Francisco over the next year. Stein's work has been published widely, including in The New York Times, Kunstforum International, LA Review of Books, The Guardian, i-D Vice, Vogue Italia, and British Journal of Photography. Stein is represented by ROSEGALLERY, LA, Palo Gallery, NY and Vin Gallery, Shanghai/HCMC. 

*We strive to make our workshops and classes financially accessible while sustaining the resources needed to support our programs. Reduced-price tuition options are made possible in part through private donations, but primarily through the support of participants who are able to pay full tuition. By registering at the full rate, community members help create scholarship opportunities and expanded access for those who may not otherwise be able to participate.

When registering, we ask that you select the pricing level that best fits your current budget and reserve reduced tuition options for situations where they are truly necessary. These community-supported offerings are available on a first come, first served basis. If all reduced-price spots have been filled, please contact education@cpw.org to inquire about additional scholarship availability. We will always do our best to accommodate requests whenever possible.