This course is a “hands on” introduction to digital photography. Through a series of assignments, students will learn the fundamentals of the medium: how to operate the digital camera manually (Camera modes, Exposure, Flash modes, ISO settings, Lens focal length, Shutter speeds), explore compositional and design choices, use photography softwares, and experiment with inkjet printed photographs.

The Dutch term Stilleven, meaning “still life,” translates into French as “vie silencieuse” (silent life), as opposed to “nature morte”. This carries a significant difference in meaning: life, not death. This choice of words reflects the concerns of the artist and teacher, who, through her artistic practice, explores the tension between life and death, beauty and ugliness, and the lightness and weight of existence.

Through photographic exploration in the surrounding grounds of Champlain college and at home, students will be asked to create short bodies of work under the themes of landscape and still life and share it with the class for discussions.

Using a photographic and performative approach, Sara A. Tremblay gathers fragments that oscillate between the everyday and the extraordinary of a life lived in the Eastern Townships countryside. Through photography, video, performance and sculpture, she gathers and documents objects, bodies, ephemeral actions, interventions and the transformations she witnesses. Her work is intimately linked to the place where she lives, the territory and the moods that inhabit it.

Sara A.Tremblay (b. Les Éboulements, 1983) has been living in Orford since 2018. Her transition to the countryside greatly inspired her and proved decisive for the rest of her career. She holds an MFA from Concordia University and teaches photography at the Université de Sherbrooke. Her work has been exhibited at Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (2023), Musée Colby-Curtis (2023), Galerie B-312 (2023), Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke (2019), Centre d’artistes Vaste et Vague (2017), Maison des arts de Laval (2017), Fondation Guido Molinari (2015) and YYZ Artists’ Outlet (2014), among others. In 2016, she hiked the 650-kilometer International Appalachian Trail (SIAT) as part of a creative residency at the Rencontres de la photographie en Gaspésie, from which the photographic book Sentier difficile (2023) emerged. In spring 2020, in response to the confinement, she founded Les Encans de la quarantaine, a virtual auction group dedicated to selling the work of independent, emerging and non-gallery-represented artists. Since the spring of 2024, she has been advocating for visual artists during large-scale arts demonstrations as part of the Great mobilization for the arts in Quebec.

Monday and Thursday evenings

May 22nd – June 23rd from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.