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Gallery  •   Memberships  •   Workshops

Take a look at the bios below to learn a little more about some of our workshop teachers.

8x10 Polaroid Transfer                              Christine, 2005

Christine Breslin is a documentary, fine art, and commercial photographer. The recipient of numerous grants and awards, Ms. Breslin has exhibited nationally, is in several collections, and is a member of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Society for Photographic Education (SPE) and National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).
Her work bridges both fine art and commercial fields, with her use of Polaroid films and transfers, toning, and other alternative techniques, as well as her involvement in many documentary projects.
 Breslin is a teaching artist at The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, The Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University, and the Bushnell Partners' program, and is an adjunct professor at Capital Community College. She has been an adjunct professor at Manchester Community College, The Hartford Art School and the University of Connecticut. 
Christine can be reached through her website: www.breslinphoto.com

Keith Johnson received his MFA from RISD studying with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind following a year at Visual Studies Workshop with Nathan Lyons. Ten years of teaching led to a move to the business side of photography, completing an MBA in 1987. He supports his fine art making as a consultant in the northeast and is on the summer faculty at CPW, Penland School of Crafts, VSW, Maine Media Workshop, and Jackson Hole Art Association.
Recent solo shows include CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY; FotoFest, Houston, TX; George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Panopticon, Boston, MA; Nelson Hancock Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; and Wall Space Gallery in Seattle,WA.
Collections include RISD, George Eastman House, and Center for Creative Photography; he is a recipient of a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Fellowship, Residencies at Light Work and Visual Studies Workshop and  CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY.
He lives in Hamden, CT, with his wife Becky of nearly 37 years. Keith can be reached through his website: www.keithjohnsonphotographs.com
Mallorie Ostrowitz got her first camera when she was ten. She began her career documenting family and friends. She has shown her work regularly since 1999, both in group and solo shows in CT and across the country.  She is a member of several juried admission organizations, including Artworks Gallery in Hartford and CT Women Artists. Mallorie has recently become represented by Art Source for Design Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona and has won several awards for work which has been part of juried shows. She currently teaches at Manchester Community College in the continuing ed program, offering a basic course in natural and urban landscape photography and advanced seminars in various photography topics. Additionally, Mallorie gives slide presentations of trips she has taken, and workshops for the Sierra Club, CT Audubon Society, Simsbury Camera Club, and various art galleries, schools and church groups.
Mallorie can be reached through her website: www.ostrowitzphotography.com
John Prendergast recently retired after over 35 years in the photo industry. He is a former instructor in the Continuing Education Department Of Manchester Community College, where he taught classes in digital photography and Photoshop Elements. He currently continues to photograph and refine his images in "the digital darkroom."
Jeff Shaffer has been an award-winning professional photographer for over 20 years, and has also been teaching at the college level for over 11 years. He is an Adobe Certfied Instructor in Photoshop and Lightroom. Jeff has developed, and taught, many courses in digital photography and software to a diverse client base including corporate, government, trade organizations, and individual graphics professionals.
 Jeff can be reached through his website:  www.shaffersmith.com
Check out Jeff's blog at www.shaffersmithphoto.blogspot.com  for more about Camera RAW.
Jessica Somers, MFA, is a photographer and educator specializing in historic photographic techniques and self-portraiture.
Jessica studied alternative and historic photographic processes closely with Christopher James, Dan Estabrook, and Jill Enfield. Her work is published in the second edition of The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes by Christopher James and her photographs have been exhibited regionally.
Since 1999 Jessica has been teaching photography at colleges and art centers throughout CT, and has recently received an honorable mention in Center's Excellence in Teaching Award 2009. Currently she teaches photography at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, CT and Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT.
Jessica can be reached through her website: www.jessicasomers.com

Tracy Seigle, born and raised in Vernon, CT, was a photography major at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. She has studied and practiced black-and-white analog photography, color, medium- and large-format, alternative processes, mounting, and matting. Although in recent years she has learned digital photography, editing, and large format printing, her first and true love will always be the darkroom. There have, however, been setbacks and obstacles in the photo industry that have brought her all too close to the point of exchanging her camera for a paintbrush and canvas. Tracy's devastation at the near extinction of the cibachrome print and Polaroid's ceased production of film have helped her learn that, after many angry and frustrating letters to major film corporations, teaching is the best and most productive way she can share her love and passion for photography.

Chris Huestis earned a BFA in photography at the University of Connecticut in 1990. He spent years working at various photography retail establishments and labs. He also photographed weddings for some time before deciding that this wasn't really the area of photography that he wanted to pursue. Chris has always had an interest in the more traditional and historical photographic processes, though he welcomes digital photography as a useful tool to take these older processes to new levels. Chris opened PhotoSynthesis, LLC, in the fall of 2008, and has big plans to offer Connecticut photographic artists the resources they won't find anywhere else in the area.

Jill Enfield , one of this country's most experienced and respected handcoloring artists, is a fine art, editorial and commercial photographer.  Jill has taught handcoloring and non-silver techniques at Parsons School of Design, The New School, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York University, Long Island University and the International Center of Photography in New York, as well as in workshops throughout the United States and Europe. Jill’s more recent emphasis has been on the wet plate collodion process, originally used by Matthew Brady during the Civil War.
Jill's work has been featured in over thirty shows during her career, including an exhibition at The Vivienne Esders Gallery in Paris. Jill had two one-woman shows in 2003; a lecture at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York followed by an opening at Artisan Works Gallery in September 2003. In December 2003 her work was featured at the Light Factory in Charlotte, North Carolina. A workshop and lecture were included during the opening weekend. In 2006, one of Jill's images was one of forty-two images selected from thousands in the Here is New York archive of New York City to commemorate the fifth anniversary of 9/11. The prints hung at Ground Zero in Manhattan for a year.
In January 2009, Jill was also given a solo show at Tilt Gallery in Phoenix, Arizona. In September of the same year, Jill's wet collodion portraits of immigrants in New York City were supported by a faculty development grant awarded to Jill from The New School. The same body of work was the featured exhibition at Ellis Island, in tandem with the annual Black Tie Gala for the charity organization Upwardly Global, a support resource for placing professionals from other nations with appropriate career options in the United States. A podcast about the project can be heard by going to Jill's media page. Also in 2009, Jill's handcoloring work became part of the traveling exhibition Four Visions in a Different Light, beginning in Fall 2009 and traveling through 2011.
Click here for an extended bio. Jill can be reached through her website: www.jillenfield.com