Feb 21st and 22nd, 2022
Most of the photography industry focuses on gear, business philosophies, workflows, pricing, and social media. We believe what is missing in the industry is a place for photographers to learn how to deepen their work from their own unique perspective.
We will be talking about the importance of personal work, being vulnerable, maturing your visual opinion, and helping you change the conversation around wedding and family photography.
.svg)
“The Gathering is most likely the most memorable education I’ve had in my career!”
“Inspired is an understatement.”
“I walked away from this experience feeling inspired, renewed, and excited.”
“Wow. What a valuable experience.”
We are thrilled to have a diverse speaker lineup filled with industry leaders, working professionals, and fine art creators. All of the Speakers have a love for teaching and helping other photographers create more meaningful work. Each Speaker sees photography as a way to live a fulfilling life full of purpose.
The 2021 Gathering Speakers have worked with companies like Tiffany & Co, American Express, Lexus, New York Times, T-Mobile, National Geographic, Martha Stewart Weddings, Bloomberg, Time Magazine, Travel & Leisure Magazine, and Fortune Magazine.
They have been featured in Vogue, Lenscratch, Harper's Bazaar, Feature Shoot, The Atlantic, Buzzfeed News, Lens Culture, and New York Magazine.
Many of our speakers have been in domestic and international photography exhibitions. They have been recognized and won awards from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, PDN, Lens Culture, Women That Soar, Critical Mass, and Orlando Museum of Art.
Cornell Watson is a dope-ass Black photographer based in Durham, North Carolina. His photography is centered around sharing the stories of Black people. His work has appeared in national ad campaigns and in national publications such as the New York Times and Washington Post.
He is also the 2020 recipient of the Alexia Foundation grant for his award winning photo series "Behind the Mask" which has appeared on the Washington Post and Buzzfeed News.
When he’s not creating photos, being the best husband in the world, or saving his two year old daughter from drowning in the toilet, you can find him passed out from exhaustion on the living room couch.
.svg)
.svg)
Kirsten is a photographer based in Denver, Colorado however her work takes her around the world annually for photo commissions, speaking engagements and teaching opportunities. It was her 3 classes on Creative Live that ignited a global interest in her documentary approach to photographing families, specifically DayIn The Life sessions as an alternate to the family portrait.
From India to Colombia,Australia to Kazakhstan, Kirsten has brought her love of real life moments to over 30 countries in the last decade.
In 2018, along with business partners Jenna and Tristan Shouldice, Kirsten launched the Documentary Family Awards, a photo competition that celebrates the very best pictures that highlight families in their everyday life worldwide.
Of all of her accomplishments, however, it is being a mom to her daughter Byrdie Mae that bring Kirsten the most joy. Beating her husband in scrabble, a close second.
Since 1990, I have woven a career of photographing for magazines, advertising and weddings in New York City. My focus has always been imperfect moments that reveal something believable and true. I studied studio art at Beloit College and spent my apprenticeship years as a printer for Sylvia Plachy.
I have been recognized as a pioneer in contemporary wedding photography, listed on Top Lists by Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Martha Stewart Weddings.
Notable Wedding Clients
Notable Commercial Clients
Nancy Borowick is an internationally renowned photographer, author, teacher and speaker, bringing her personal story to universities, hospitals, oncology units and community groups around the world.
Nancy is a graduate of the International Center of Photography and has exhibited her work in over 100 cities globally.
Working regularly with the New York Times since 2013 and contributing to outlets such as National Geographic, Time Magazine, O the Oprah Magazine, the Washington Postand others, Nancy has told the intimate stories of people and places from every corner of the globe winning her major accolades and awards, including those from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International and most recently the 2018 Humanitarian Award from the organization Women That Soar for her photography and recent monograph, The Family Imprint.
In 2019 she was selected as a new Sony Artisan of Imagery, awarded the title of 2019 Kickstarter Thought Leader and was nominated to the trustee board of the International Center of Photography.
.jpg)
Kirth Bobb is an award-winning photographer whose work illustrates the synchrony of life and spans several photography genres, including portraiture, street photography, weddings, and fine art.
Kirth's Afro-Guyanese upbringing heavily influences his work. The diverse, bright, and vivid colors and cultural landscapes of Guyana shapes his photography.
Growing up, Kirth's grandmother always told him, "There's an art to everything," and ever since, he's worked to highlight the joys, sorrows, beauty, and humor that form the artistic tapestry of everyday life.
His photography inspires people to broaden their perspectives about places and communities they may be unfamiliar with and encourages an appreciation of the beauty in the subtle, familiar, and mundane aspects of everyday life.
Kirth is a FujiFilm ambassador, and his photographs have been published in several major publications, including The New York Times,Washington Post, and The Huffington Post, and featured in several exhibitions across Europe, The Caribbean, and The Americas
Chantal was born in Argentina and moved to the US when she was 21. She loves the documentary world because she finds it honest and informative in a world that sometimes seems superficial. She believes telling stories is a way of giving back and learning about life at the same time. Chantal has traveled to many places while documenting stories, including Morocco, Canada, Peru, Italy, Brazil, Ireland and Haiti.
In 2018 Chantal added commercial and conent creation to her brand. Working for clients such as University of Miami, Zem gear, Swatch baseball team, HSBC, and many others. . Including videos, slideshow and stop motion Chantal helped grow the audience of many brands, authors, bands and companies.
Her passions beside photography are music, traveling and hanging out with husband Paul, dog Harley and friends. The happiest time for her is when her family visits from Argentina.
Rashod Taylor is a fine art and portrait photographer whose work addresses themes of family, culture, legacy, and the black experience. He attended Murray State University and received a Bachelor's degree in Art with a specialization in Fine Art Photography.
Since then, Rashod has exhibited and published his work across the United States and internationally. He is a 2020 Critical Mass Top 50 Finalist and was a winner of Lens Culture’s Critics Choice award.
Rashod’s work has been featured in The Atlantic, Buzzfeed News, Feature Shoot, Lenscratch among others. He is currently working on a series called Little Black Boy, where he documents his son’s life while examining the Black American experience and fatherhood. He lives in Bloomington, IL, with his wife and son.
Zalmy is a hairy hermit, sharing the cave with his wife and six cave-babies. In the moments between grunting, saber-tooth attacks, fire making, home-schooling, and mammoth hunts, he records his family life on silver coated celluloid strips and complementary metal oxide semiconductors. In exchange for blankets, wheels, back massages, and fermented fish, he does the same for others.
(Switching tenses because this whole talking about myself in third person weirds me out.)
My wife and I have dreams of moving into a larger cave (with volcanic views) and starting a Jewish holistic school for other cave-babies.
Although generally believed to be a hipster, a notion helped by my facial hair, thrift-store wardrobe, and love of good coffee and hoppy beer; my ambivalence towards Bon Iver and my lack of flannel shirts has me convinced I cannot be boxed.
Olya was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the family of artists, and became fascinated with photography at an early age. She has spent a great deal of her childhood on film sets and in editing rooms, observing and often being involved in the creative process.
Olya continued to study photography, journalism and filmmaking in school and worked as a curator for several international film festivals before perusing photography full time.This journey has taken Olya around the world, to film sets, backstage of theaters in Europe, historic events in Africa, streets of Prague, Paris, Rome and finally, New York, a place she now calls home.
Olya’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums and appeared in a number of art magazines and publications, including The New York Times, Huffington Post and The New York Magazine.
Olya has been commissioned to work for several prominent art galleries, international art fairs, and museums in New York City, but her primary focus in the past 10 years has been on documenting weddings. Her inspiration for photographic work is greatly influenced by literature, music, cinema and personal experiences.
Taking inspiration from her design background, Lauren Mitchell explores color, form and line with how she sees Florida. She draws heavy influence from the history of the Sunshine State, and seeks to illuminate how the bizarre and extraordinary intertwine closely with the mundane experience of everyday life.
Lauren has exhibited in St. Petersburg and Orlando, Florida, and received Honorable Mention in PDN's 2016 Exposure Awards for her ongoing Space Coast series. In 2020, she was selected as one of 10 artists for the Florida Prize at the Orlando Museum of Art (exhibition forthcoming in 2021). She currently resides in Orlando with her husband and daughter.
I am a Brooklynite with a German accent.
I study a martial art to be a better photographer.
Breathing, moving, and looking has been my underlying purpose for as far as I can remember.
I am driven by my intuition. Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s motto “Don’t Think! Look!” became my mantra.
Photography is not just my profession or passion. It is my art, my craft, the riddle to help me understand life.
Coming to New York City in the late 1980s I learned working for inspiring, masterful photographers. I practiced working as an editorial and corporate photographer telling other people's stories. Now I am driven to share my interpretations of life through my photography.
Meredith Heuer has spent the last 20 years traveling the globe, shooting commercial and editorial assignments ranging from apples to Arnold Schwarzenegger for magazines such as Fortune, Gourmet and Travel & Leisure.
Her pictures have always had a focus on natural and available light which brings a deep emotional quality to her work. She applies this to weddings as well, where she knits her skills as a storyteller with her eye for beauty and grace to create photographs that are gorgeous, but also honest.
Kristin M.Young embraces many roles asa teacher, writer and photographer, but her favorite by far is wife and mother. She and her husband have six children whom she unashamedly and relentlessly photographs.
Their oldest son, Colby, is tucked away in Heaven after a courageous two-year fight with brain cancer. After documenting their cancer journey through her camera lens,Kristin feels a firm calling to encourage others to look for hope and beauty while in the valley.
Fully embracing the motto “shoot what you love and do it often,” Kristin is a staunch advocate for personal projects as creative outlets.She also blends her love for social justice, writing and visual arts in her journalistic and documentary approach to photography. Raised in Germany as a proud Army brat, Kristin currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina
I am drawn to the nuances of human emotions and how photographs have the power to shape peopleʼs narratives and transform their perspectives. As a photographer, I recognize this extraordinary privilege of being able to listen, observe, and tell people’s stories, or the opportunity to empower them to tell their own. Being in the presence of other people’s experiences has informed me both in life and art, and I am always in deep gratitude for the transformation in perspectives it gives me.
Current project include capturing the fertility challenges and chosen single parenthood of a Jewish woman in her mid-40s and documenting the grief space of women and families who have gone through the loss of a pregnancy or baby born still. On the more personal side, I use photography to explore ideas about my daughters, my own identity, and the remaining days of my beloved dog.
I have been the recipient of multiple international awards within the family and birth genre, have been published in photography magazines, including Macleans and Photo Life Canada, and exhibited at the Capture Photo Festival. I am a proud member of the Diversify Photo community. Outside of photography, I willingly oscillate between the constant company of my family and the quiet majesty of the forest trails close to home.
36, Louisville Kentucky. A professional photographer for 15 years I have worked with Bloomberg, Courier-Journal, AMA, PGA, Hennessy, UofL Hospital, and the Kentucky Derby Museum where I have a long-term photo installation. In 2019 I was awarded the Great Meadows Professional Development grant for my work around social justice and survivors of violent crimes
