The Art and Business of Conceptual Portraiture with Jennifer Thoreson

Wonderful, information packed class and a truly inspiring teacher. Jennifer’s attention to details and focus while shooting, as well as her depth of thought while creating the concept is admiring. The only thing I could wish for is a longer section dedicated to post-processing.

I am so grateful for this class; it is just what I have been looking for to help me go beyond my "photographic potty training". By leading us through her own creative process, Jennifer Thoreson invites us to think about why we do what we do and to make our work more meaningful and authentic, creating our unique visual vocabulary. Moreover, she provides detailed info on submitting work to galleries and publications, contests, printing editions, preparing an exhibition and pricing. In her calm, unpretentious manner, Jennifer demystified art without trivializing it and I finally saw light at the end of a rather long tunnel.

This is the best course on Conceptual Photography on Creative Live. It inspired me to create and has had a huge impact on my fine art career. I couldn't recommend enough!

Amazing inspiration and information to create fine art images - loved this course!

Loved this course. So helpful and inspiring. Jennifer truly knows what she's talking about. I admire how open she is about the pain and self doubt involved in the creation of a body of work, and the thoughts and symbols behind all her works.

She's got some issues. What a depresive class.

Within the first segments I felt like she was speaking my language. This is not a technical course but about finding your own way and digging within your own psyche to find what inspires your work.

"Thinking about art is not making art." In this inspiring and informative workshop, Jennifer helps you put thought into action - through meaningful self-reflection, exploration and by taking her through her own processes. Through exercises and examples, she explains how to pull out a thread of an idea and develop it into a conceptual project that is informed and invigorated by personal experience, preference, interests, and so much more. Her workshop not only feeds the creative soul, but offers earnest information on taking first steps toward publishing and showing fine-art. Jen so beautifully shares her talent and her love of teaching - I first "met" her on Creative Live and have had the joy of being mentored by her in-person as well. This workshop is a very close second to spending time with her one-on-one. Thank you, CL, for bringing her back!

It was great to hear her comments on achieving the requisite print quality for the art market. As Jennifer commented, there was no time to go into detail of master printing but I would love to see a future course dedicated to the technical side of fine art printing.

Jennifer's presentation is exactly what I've needed to hear. I've been working toward bodies of work and thinking a lot in that vein for a long time and having her help me to pull things "under my umbrella" a bit more makes that thinking even clearer and more exciting. The CONTENT of this series is fantastic. I know I'll go back to it again and again with pad and pencil in hand.

I love Jennifer, she's one of my cL favorites! She is such a soulful photographer and her art just resonates with me in so many ways. While she was creating her conceptual piece with the mother and child, my eyes welled up because it was such a profound experience to witness. I appreciate that she has a graduate degree in art and is able to refer to others in the field who are leading the way. She is so genuine and I'm grateful for her willingness to bare her soul to us through her art and process. I've learned so much by watching how she interacts with models and communicates efficiently and gently to get AMAZING poses. Definitely worth the buy if you're looking for inspiration from an artist who creates images which evoke emotion and communicate a message, not just trying to make "great photos." I can't wait to learn about the business side of it all!