A new space for photography workshops and lectures called The Humid is set to open later this month in Athens, GA. Operated by photographers Mark Steinmetz and Irina Rozovsky, The Humid aims to host three or four ticketed workshops annually as well as free events including lectures, book signings, and book release parties. The Humid’s first workshop, To Photograph the World, is scheduled for the weekend of October 12 through October 14 and will be co-taught by photographers Baldwin Lee and Mike Smith, two Guggenheim fellows based in East Tennessee.
Like their fellow Athens-based artists Holly Coulis and Ridley Howard, Rozovsky and Steinmetz are a married couple, and The Humid will be located in the industrial building where they share studio space. Steinmetz, whose photographs of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport were on view in the exhibition “Terminus” at the High Museum of Art earlier this year, has spent time in Athens over the course of the past two decades, and Rozovsky relocated to the Georgia college town after teaching at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. During a conversation over the phone, Rozovsky told BA that The Humid hopes to add Athens to the national photography workshop and festival circuit, possibly drawing new audiences southward, but also to celebrate the work of accomplished Southern photographers like Lee and Smith. “A lot of great photographers are based in Athens and throughout the South,” Rozovsky said, “and not enough people know that.”
Rozovsky and Steinmetz hope to also engage photographers studying at the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art and hired a recent MFA graduate, Brittainy Lauback, as coordinator at The Humid. Students and recent graduates receive a sizable discount on workshop fees.
To Photograph the World will include critiques of participants’ work and casual lectures by Lee and Smith discussing their careers. As will likely be the case for instructors in future workshops, a discussion between Lee and Smith is scheduled for Saturday, October 13 at 7 pm and is free and open to the public. The conversation will be moderated by Rozovsky and Steinmetz.
In addition to workshops and lectures, Rozovsky said The Humid also plans to host portfolio reviews and potentially juried shows and exhibitions at some point in the future. Register for To Photograph the World and find more information on The Humid’s website.
