By day, they are the storied photographers and filmmakers who bring the Maine Media Workshops (MMW) catalog to life, teaching their craft to a new generation. At night, the spotlight is on the art they themselves make.

For those of us fortunate enough to live in or visit the Rockport area, summer evenings offer a glimpse into the master classes. As film and photographs flood the screen at Union Hall, the creators provide a "behind the scenes" look into what goes into a shoot and what goes on inside the artist capturing the image.

The lighting, the equipment, the location, the real and hired players, the drama, the egos, the weather, the deadlines, the budget – and sometimes, danger – it’s enough to give one a creative high just sitting there looking at a screen in a room that starts out cool but once filled to capacity, quickly takes on the quality of a steamy living room filled with relatives watching family movies.

Although the images are definitely not shots from Uncle Bob and Aunt Evelyn’s trip to the Grand Canyon, the pros at this world-famous school in our backyard, make you feel like family as they open their doors to the community, inviting you to come inside and watch some pictures.

Over the course of several evenings this past summer, I did just that. And this is what I saw, heard, learned and felt.

From Crete to Rockport

Academy-award winning cinematographer Walter Lassally, 81, had been at the workshops 18 years ago and said he had “not expected to cross the Atlantic again.” Known for his use of HMI lighting, Arriflex cameras and high-speed stocks, he showed footage from several of his films, including Tom Jones, The Bostonians, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and the 1964 black and white Zorba the Greek, starring Anthony Quinn, for which he earned his Oscar.

Now retired and living in a village on the Isle of Crete, which he discovered in his Zorba days, he generously welcomed everyone to visit him “on the beach, second tent on the right.” Born in Berlin, the filmmaker, who had one Polish and one German parent, escaped Hitler as a child with his family, fleeing to England just two months before WWII erupted.

There was something otherworldly about Lassally, in simple country dress of trousers, cotton shirt and thin suspenders. Clearly, even before he spoke, one could see he was not an American. His countenance was unguarded; he was effusive with a generosity of spirit and a twinkle in his eye that bespoke not only of a Mediterranean joie de vivre but also of a man at ease in his own skin.

His face carries many stories, set slightly askew by certain chapters perhaps, that ultimately, by sheer luck or determination, settled on happy endings. Through his animated gestures – jumping out of his chair and holding an imaginary camera up to his face saying “you have to train your eyes how to see, to get a picture from the best angle, so a tree isn’t popping out of someone’s head” – one can discern a childlike wonder and lack of self-consciousness often left on the playgrounds of youth that must, if we are to succeed as artists, be reclaimed as adults.

Still passionate about his craft and worried about its future, Lassally implored the students present to preserve and protect it.

In the United States, he noted, money is what separates television and theatrical movies, with respective budgets of $2 million to $10 million, creating a huge void. “Lots of movies today fall into that black hole and don’t get made. It’s stupid and it’s tragic,” he said.

The filmmaker said modern day shooting schedules, which are for the most part cut in half from 40 days to 21, are so tight they not only present artistic constraints but have at times, led to dangerous situations where “people get killed” during arduous fourteen hour days, as opposed to more sane nine and ten hour days.

Another thorn in filmmakers' sides, he explained, is the wide screen format, which has never been standardized resulting in films that appear different from screen to screen. “We can no longer compose an image because you need a frame,” he explained.

Still passionate
about his craft and
worried about its future,
Lassally implored
the students present
to preserve and protect it.

One bright spot, he said, are the festivals that show independent films. But they don’t get shown to a wide audience, he said. These films, he noted, still tell the stories of people in their thirties and forties, which Hollywood doesn’t, preferring instead to make movies for and about seven-to-seventeen year olds.

The pressures of telling only the stories of youth, also hinders the development of filmmakers’ careers and provides for “no continuity” for a body of evolutionary work over the course of a lifetime, said Lassally, who has made over 90 films in genres including mainstream features, international art films and documentary.

Another challenge he noted is the expense of getting movies to the public. “Three to five years from now you won’t see a foot of celluloid in movie theaters, it will all be video,” Lassally said, characterizing the change in medium as “a ray of hope” as the cost of obtaining a movie for theaters will drop from approximately $100,000 for celluloid to $100 for video.

Pulitzer Winning Photojournalist

Stan Grossfeld, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist for The Boston Globe (for Spot News coverage in war-torn Lebanon in 1984 and for Feature Photography during the Ethiopian famine and illegal alien activity at the U.S. and Mexican border in 1998) made a return visit to MMW.

Raised in the Bronx, New York, it was clear Grossfeld has embraced his Boston home with much affection, showing photos from World Series traveling coverage of the Red Sox.

But it was the photos from the war in Lebanon, a little girl who had lost an eye, and the haunting photograph of a starving mother and child (who died later the same day) in Ethiopia, where Grossfeld’s work had a palpable effect on the packed room.

More pictures from chain gangs in the South, in the not too distant past, and others from a New England prison, depicting deplorable conditions portrayed Grossfeld’s passion for social justice, for which he is known. The photographer shared tips on how to take a picture that needs to be taken but is not supposed to be taken.

Visceral advice was contained in Grossfeld’s suggestion, “If you ever say to yourself ‘look’ then you should make a picture.”

He also offered very practical advice for students. Flashing a New York City shot featuring the former Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, he urged them to “always make an overall wherever you go.”

Boxers, Cowboys and Musicians

New York City photographer Arlene Collins, who has taught at the workshops for over a decade, showed a series of boxing photographs made at the city’s Rome Boxing Club she shot practically every night for a year. She saw skinny kids come in with no self-esteem, or strength of physique transform before her lens. “Boxing gave these young kids their own voice.”

She has traveled the world-photographing people in locations including Papua New Guinea, Hanoi, Mongolia, Columbia, Brazil, Cuba, India and China. “For me a portrait is a dialogue between myself and the individual,” Collins said.

Saying her work was about “contact and context”; she also showed work she shot at a New Jersey rodeo over two summers. When it comes to cameras, said Collins, “the simpler the better.”

Boston photographer John Goodman made his 15th appearance at the summer workshops. His photographs of another New York boxing gym were published in the classic photography book The Times Square Gym.

It was a small neon sign up on the second floor that first caught his eye, recalled Goodman, who said how grateful he was that he stopped and crossed the street and went into the place that helped define his career. How many times in our lives are we intrigued by something and tell ourselves we’ll stop back, he asked, and don’t?

Among his portraits was a shot of James Dougherty, first husband of Marilyn Monroe. He told the photographer that when he was 17 he was sent by a family member to pick Monroe up from school in his truck. “She was 15, she scooted right up next to me on the seat and when she turned 16 we got married. “I didn’t marry Marilyn Monroe, I married Norma Jean Baker and she loved me,” Goodman quoted Dougherty as saying.

Chris Stanford, from Atlanta, GA, in his second year at MMW, was there to teach a class on Lighting Outside the Box. He said he does a lot of photojournalism and advertising work and earlier in his career, did magazine portraits. “It’s imbedded in me. It’s something I have to do, it’s not work to me,” he said of his craft.

The advertising work he does for national accounts is what allows him the financial freedom to make the artistic pictures he wants to make, he explained. One of his career highs, he said, was shooting golfer Arnold Palmer in his workshop. He has done many Rolling Stone assignments for musicians including Usher, Little Bow Wow and DMZ. He also showed several shots from a project that featured professional baseball players from various teams.

Seattle illustrator, photographer and mixed media artist David Julian was putting in his sixth year at the workshops and teaching the Art and Craft of Digital Montage.

He showed illustrations created with PhotoShop and breaking down the multiple layers involved, explained how he taught himself to use the program, showing how an artist can creatively embrace digital media.

Julian also screened a series of photojournalism shots made in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. His work depicted the devastation of a world turned upside down. “Everything that had been inside in drawers was now outside and things that had been outside, were now inside,” he said of the city and the resulting photographs.

The Cincinnati-based portrait photographer Michael Wilson, in his first appearance at MMW, was there to teach The Process of Portraits.

He screened a black-and-white show featuring portraits, including many famous musicians including Lyle Lovett, B.B. King, Emmylou Harris, David Byrne and Waylon Jennings. Apologizing that his pictures were all the same size and in a bordered box, Wilson said it was the first time he had scanned photos into his computer.

Clearly a purist, Wilson was excited about a new studio he has put together where he will be making pictures like they did in the 19th Century. “You come, I take a picture and you leave with it,” he explained.

About the School

The legacy of the Maine Media Workshops is 35 years in the making. Much has changed including its name, management and in 2007, the shift to non-profit status. Its ability to attract world-class talent and put art first thrives.

The school offers something for everyone who wishes to pick up a camera, including black-and-white, portrait, outdoor, nature, travel, photojournalism and documentary photography. All aspects of filmmaking are covered, from producing, writing editing and cinematography to digital video and documentary work. Also, multimedia classes are offered and newer programs include design and book arts and animation.

To request a catalog, enroll or learn more about community events or the diverse workshops and degree programs at the Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, visit www.theworkshops.com or call toll free 877-577-7700.

Teresa Piccari is a writer and teacher living in coastal Maine. She is the proprietor of The Village Scribe, a writing and editing business located at The Wellness Center, 71 Elm, in Camden. She runs The Ducktrap Writers Roundtable. She teaches writing workshops including Creative Writing, Mythic Structure, Writing & Healing and Memoir. Correspond with her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 207.344.7070.