✨ The Elements of Portraiture — Workshop & Practice Session

In The Elements of Portraiture Photography Workshop, Andrés and Suede will share insights from their own practices, guiding attendees through best techniques for capturing the essence, story, and presence of a subject. Through demonstrations on lighting, backdrop design, and composition, participants will learn what happens before — and during — the click of the shutter.From there, participants will step into the practice phase of the workshop testing what they have just learned with live models.

The experience ends with a personal Portrait Session, offering participants a chance to step in front of the camera. Each person will receive one test shot and three frames, photographed by Andrés or Suede. Participants will then select one out of three frames to be delivered via email within a week of the event.

This event celebrates the practice and process of portraiture and beauty and individuality of our community — whether you’re behind the camera or in front of it.

📸 Event Highlights & Guidelines

Learn lighting, backdrop, and composition techniques

Observe professional workflow and portrait philosophy

Practice hands-on with models

Bring your own camera (film, digital, or cell phone)

About Suede:

Suede is a lens-based conceptual artist born and raised in the South Bronx. He is the founder of the first Black-owned film lab and darkroom in the Bronx called BXposure. Suede began his artistic journey following the passing of his father, Charles, which led Suede to leave the corporate world he had felt forced to enter after graduating college. His practice focuses on documenting both urban and rural life to recreate engaging visual stories that highlight art, creatives of color, and cultural phenomena. As a self-taught artist, Suede has documented, photographed, and written for such institutions as Lincoln Center (NY, NY), The New School (NY, NY), New York Landmarks Preservation (NY, NY), and the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) for the traveling exhibition Our Friend, Jean featuring the early works of Jean-Michel Basquiat in partnership with The Bishop Gallery (BK, NY.) Suede completed the BronxArtSpace Artist Residency on Governors Island in the summer of 2024 and is currently an Artist in Residence at the Andrew Freedman Home (BX, NY). This Fall, he also returned as an Artist in Residence on Governors Island through ArtCrawl Harlem and recently received the 2025 En Foco Mixed Media Fellowship. Suede holds a BA from Williams College (Williamstown, MA) in English literature and a concentration in maritime studies.

About Andrés:

Andrés Rodriguez von Rabenau is a Puerto Rican photographer who has been based in the Bronx for nearly 15 years. Shaped and trained within a household of working-class photographers in Puerto Rico. His practice is rooted in that lineage of lived experience, resistance and resilience. He documents daily life, capturing people in their element and the quiet struggles that define it. Through his lens, Andrés seeks to chronicle displacement and diaspora, while exploring the nuances of identity, place, and memory. He believes that people tell their own stories;he is simply there to witness and translate them through his eyes. Andrés’s work has been featured in different publications like Eater, Frieze, and 80grados. He was also the finalist for the video web award of the Photojournalist Association of Puerto Rico. Andrés is part of Uptown Fine Art Printing Studio, a professional printing studio located at The Andrew Freedman Home in The Bronx, specializing in fine art printing of different artworks including photography.

November 16th, 10am - 1pm

Elements of Portraiture Photography - Portrait Workshop