Nubar Alexanian is currently facilitating a Photography Critique Group that meets once a month for ten months. This is an exciting opportunity for those of us who are working professionals, teachers, and other serious photographers who are looking for a way to expand or rekindle our personal vision and/or taking the next step in our work. Nubar works with people on a long term basis, preferably with photographers who are involved in long term projects. This first group has been meeting for six years and is closed. There is a waiting list for a second group. Each group is limited to ten people and the cost is $550. If you are interested in more information please contact Millicent Harvey at: mhphoto1@comcast.net Nubar also works with photographers who are not from the Boston area on an individual basis, using either the Internet or sending work through the mail. Photographers who are working on long term projects and are interested in this kind of arrangement can contact him directly at: nubar@nubar.com From Just Push Play, an exhibition of eight photographers working on long term projects with Nubar. The benefits of working on a long term project go well beyond relevant issues like challenging a photographer’s commitment to his or her work, or even as a vehicle for trying new things. When looking at and living with a body of work that is developing over time, a photographer has the chance to create a connection so deeply personal, that whatever the work needs in order to progress can actually be seen in the work itself. This includes everything from complex considerations of what to shoot and when, to technical choices of what camera, lens or film to use. In this context, the needs of the work are often different or at odds with the needs of the photographer. The question then becomes whether the photographer can perceive these differences. This is where the group comes in. It is difficult to work in isolation, especially in a medium as immediate as photography, without reliable feedback. Unlike commercial assignments, long term projects exist without the comfort of limits like deadlines and budgets, having more to do with process than product. In this sense, the images act as markers, describing what was seen and felt along the way. Within this process, photographers are forced (by the work) to deal with the tension between vision and style­­working from inside out rather than outside in. Style is the manner in which a photographer solves someone else’s visual problems. However unique a photographer’s style, it is always based in certainty, on that which is familiar and can be produced again and again in a reliable way. (It can also be fun and pays well.) Here the process of creating images is from outside in, essentially directed by the needs of the client. Vision is stepping into uncertainty, into the unknown. It is risky and unreliable. (It can also be uncomfortable and it doesn’t pay). Here the process is expressed from inside out and can get very personal, since it has all to do with the passions and interests of the photographer. When photographers reveal something of themselves by their approach to a subject, have a visual vocabulary that articulates how they feel about that subject, and the visual acuity to celebrate their medium, the results can be inspirational. Images are created that have depth, personal meaning and endurance. Nubar Alexanian