Gregory Halpern: Documentary Sur/Realism Season 1

Meet your tutor Gregory Halpern as he offers an insight into what you can expect from this course.

Learn about Halpern’s early interests in photography: from his roots in Buffalo to early photographic inspiration Milton Rogovin, and the mentors he’s encountered along the way.

Halpern reflects on his development as a photographer, starting with his first project Harvard Works Because We Do rooted in a classic documentary approach and sharing how the rejection of this approach led to him establishing his voice and aesthetic as a photographer.

Halpern talks through his portfolio to date, including projects ZZYZX, Omaha Sketchbook and Let the Sun Beheaded Be. In this lesson, he shares how he approached shooting and editing each project, and the challenges and concerns he grappled with along the way.

Halpern shares insights into how he works and develops projects, focusing on his connection to places and people, his approach to shooting, and how he embraces limitations and sees failures as part of the process. The photographer also offers advice on maintaining momentum and finishing projects.

Learn more about this resource for photographers, created by Halpern and Jason Fulford to help creatives break out of their routines.

It can often be difficult to approach and work with people, and for established photographer’s like Halpern this is no less daunting. In this lesson, Halpern’s passion for working with people is clear as he shares key advice on photographing people, while outlining the importance of being honest with your intentions and being able to encourage and direct your subjects.

In the first part of this case study, we follow Halpern as he navigates portrait scenarios with subjects found via Craigslist.

In the second part of this case study, we see Halpern tackle more portrait scenarios with people found via Craigslist, as well as the photographer embracing a chance encounter with a family in the neighborhood.

In the final case study, Halpern heads to Niagara Falls to photograph strangers, approached spontaneously in this busy environment.

Halpern shares his preoccupations with documentary photography as he unpacks the possibilities of genres within the medium.

Three foundational elements for Halpern are explored in this lesson, as the photographer shares theory and practical examples of his approach to editing, sequencing and narrative. He also looks into some of his favorite photobooks and shares examples of the theory put to practice.

During this lesson, Halpern shares his love of photobooks and walks us through the development of his own publications: A, ZZYZX, and Omaha Sketchbook, exploring his choice of materials, layouts, sequencing and reflecting on his original book dummies.

Continuing on from the previous lesson, Halpern shares the development of his recent publication Let the Sun Beheaded Be and Confederate Moons.

In this lesson, Halpern discovers the results of the images shot earlier in the course. Follow the photographer and his thought process as he creates an cohesive edit of the images in front of the camera.

In our final lesson, Halpern focuses on the importance of having a photographic network and offers advice on how you might maintain and grow your own. He ends on a key topic: how to support yourself as an artist, sharing how teaching became his way to sustain personal photographic projects and how to balance commercial and personal projects.