The Arts and Humanities Alliance of Jefferson County is sponsoring for the second summer

“The Jefferson County Photography Project”. This is an unique opportunity for ten aspiring, dedicated photographers age 16 and older to learn black and white photo film documentation as a fine art form, led by noted local photographer, artist and teacher Benita Keller. The workshops are designed to benefit photographers at all skill levels.

Workshop participants will learn black and white film processing and printing, camera techniques and the visual concepts of fine art portraiture, landscape photography, and photojournalism.

Participants will photograph events, places, people, towns and landscapes in Jefferson County, West Virginia. They will be encouraged in the workshop to develop their own style and eye in the process.

Finished work will be presented in a series of exhibitions and made into a book produced from an online publishing company. Participants do not need to live in Jefferson County or West Virginia to be part of the workshop.

A series of twelve workshops and classes led by Keller will be held on Wednesdays evenings

beginning in August and continuing through the fall. Participants will use the Cecil Arnold Community Darkroom located in the historic Entler Hotel in Shepherdstown. There will also be one-on-one sessions and the opportunity for make-up sessions.

The fee for the workshop is $150, which includes a one-year membership in the Cecil Arnold

Community Darkroom, 12 workshops, 15 rolls of film, photo paper, film developing chemicals and free use of the darkroom through the length of the project and regular photography encouraging by Benita Keller. Participants are required to have their own 35-mm SLR camera.

Interested photographers should contact Keller at benitakellerphoto2000@yahoo.com for

detailed information and an application, due August 1.

Keller, of Shepherdstown, is a fine art photographer, artist, freelance photojournalist, lecturer

and curator, whose work is archived in the National Museum of Women in Washington, D.C. She was the photography editor of Antietam Review magazine has taught photography at Hagerstown Community College, Montgomery College School of Art and Design, the Art Institute of Washington, D.C., and Shepherd University.

This program is funded with support from Arts & Humanities Alliance of Jefferson County

(AHA!), West Virginia Commission on the Arts (WVCA), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA),

United Way of the Eastern Panhandle (UWEP)and individual contributions. The mission of AHA, a

volunteer, non-profit organization, is to preserve the rich history and culture of Jefferson County and to encourage creative opportunity for all its citizens.

– For more information about AHA, go to www.ahajc.org.