Workshop Series: How to Treat an Image
Photography captures a moment, but what happens when we intervene in that moment? How to Treat an Image is a workshop series exploring physical and conceptual interventions of the photographic image. Through acts of destruction, manipulation and reconstruction, participants will push photography beyond its traditional boundaries, questioning its role as a fixed record.
This series blurs the lines between photography, sculpture and performance, challenging participants to rethink the materiality of a photograph. Whether working with their images or found materials, participants will learn processes that transform photography into a tactile, multidimensional form of storytelling.
Series (all 3 How to Treat an Image Workshops): $310 (Members) / $360 (Non-Members)
Individual Workshop: $130 (Members) / $150 (Non-Members)
Manipulating Personal Archives
In this workshop, participants will experiment with personal and found archives by exploring manipulation and creating visual representations of memory that explore its abstract qualities and fleeting nature by applying image transfers to various materials. They will embrace the concept of memory manipulation as a tool for self-reinvention while also considering its significance within diasporic and immigrant communities.
Participants will learn techniques for embedding meaning into found materials, transform and transfer images onto materials with unpredictable imperfections. Materials such as copper, glass and fine art paper will be explored as sources of aesthetic and conceptual inspiration.
No prior experience is necessary to participate—and all materials will be provided. Participants must send 3-4 archival photographs by May 21, 2025. These images will be the foundation for creating your final works. Participants are encouraged to bring objects and surfaces to transfer images onto to explore the advantages and challenges of working with different materials.
Ernesto Cabral de Luna (b. 1996, Cholula, Mexico) is a lens-based artist working in Toronto. His work explores the fragmentary nature of memory—individual and collective—by manipulating alternative histories and printing onto found scrap materials through digital and analog experimental processes. Interested in narratives of migration, his practice examines the interplay between memory, dislocation, and displacement, particularly in the context of exile. His work centres around altering perception – providing new ways to experience recognizable imagery in unconventional manners and outside of their intended purpose. Ernesto received his Honors BFA in Photography from OCAD University in 2024. He has exhibited work in various local galleries and artist run centres such as Patel Brown, Abbozzo Gallery and Xpace. Ernesto has worked on campaigns with notable brands like Toronto Raptors, Walmart and Coors Light. His work will be exhibited at The Artist Project in May 2025.
