The Art of Phoneography | Photos from the August 3, 2019 Workshop at George Washington’s Headquarters

The inaugural workshop at Morristown National Historical Park. Photo by Rita.

It was exciting to bring my phonegraphy workshop from Connecticut to New Jersey’s Morristown National Historical Park — the site of the Ford Mansion, which served as George Washington’s headquarters from 1779-1780. This was the first time the workshop was offered at the park and the 20 attendee maximum was filled quickly with an additional 10 on the waiting list. As a result, a second workshop was added for October 5.

Photo by Mike

The spacious auditorium at the park’s museum provided a large sharp projection of my examples from the masters of photography, film, and painting. Thunderstorms threatened to drench us during our walk from the museum to Washington’s headquarters. But the weather does not heed the predictions of our apps and we were pleasantly greeted with a bright sunny day.

The park agreed to my request that we have the mansion exclusively to ourselves for the hour without having to compete with the guided tour groups. For most of the attendees, it was their first time at the park. Many said they were planning to return to explore the museum, Ford Mansion, and grounds at their leisure. In addition to giving away a copy of The Jacob Ford Jr. Mansion authored by Jude M. Pfister, I also gave away a print from my photographic collection of the Ford Mansion that was commissioned by the National Park Service, and a Xenvo Pro smartphone lens kit.

It was pleasing to find out that the majority of the workshop attendees came from New Jersey camera clubs and photography clubs that promoted my event. They were eager to expand their learning beyond the scope of my class. Indeed, several went online to purchase my booklet, The Art of Phoneography: Book One, for step-by-step instructions on the techniques of artistic cropping, dodging and burning, and artistic black and white photo conversion.

I’ll be speaking with park officials toward the end of the year about scheduling more of these workshops for 2020. Until then, these are some sample images submitted by several attendees.