My Clayton Austin Marfa Experience Texas workshop experience…
I have been super lucky to have attended two of the most amazing workshop in the past two years. One was Jonathan Canlas’s “The Find Workshop” in DC and this year was Clayton Austin’s “Marfa Experience” in Texas. Luckily, this last workshop in Texas actually had both Jonathan Canlas and Clayton Austin dropping some serious knowledge together. Canlas’s style is pure film only and he absolutely loves photographing people and families. In contrast, Clayton styles his own shoots with highly thought out details, arrangements and themes personal to him. I personally love photographing people and like to rock some details in my work as well, so this week spent with both was simply wow!
Let me just say getting to Marfa Texas is not easy (or ain’t easy as they would say down there). I flew into Phoenix Arizona, took a connecting flight to El Paso Texas, drove a rental car 3 hours and finally arrived in Marfa. When you are in El Paso and take that drive to Marfa the landscape, desert, mountains is surreal and beautiful. It also appears like you are inside an episode of Breaking Bad with the desert and near Mexico border surroundings. After passing the Prada art instillation on your drive you know you are getting close. Once you get in Marfa Texas (population 2100) you get this small quaint getaway for those that want to slow life down and take in one breath at a time.
Everyone from the workshop stayed at El Cosmico which is a small esoteric place to lay your head. It is made up of about 25 different Airstream trailers, tents, and giant teepees. The place is a unique experience. I had my own Airstream trailer with a green striped paint job and gave you the feeling of being on a boat. Especially since it will ever so lightly rock from the giant 25-40mph wind gusts you get during the day and night there some days.
For the workshop Clayton rented out the most amazing house with a heated saltwater pool and some of the most incredible décor and style that I have ever seen in a house. There is even a napkin that is framed and signed by Andy Warhol and another room that is all rocker with prints of the Rolling Stones and a giant fake paper mache gun that is like 2-3 feet long just chillin on the coffee table.
We started off with a grand dinner with all the attendees at the outdoor eating area which comprised of three large vintage wooden tables and the most thought out and elegant place cards and table décor. It was a wow setup when we got there. I was not expecting anything so grand and nice for our first night there.
The first night Clayton showed us this custom presentation about his life that he made. Let me just tell you that I was not ready for this. He drops the bomb on you with the story of his life lasting about 30-45minutes. It was so honest, open and completely heartwarming how he made it to this point in his life. I am not going to give specifics but this man has the strength of Andre the Giant to deal with what cards he was dealt. They could make a movie out of his life but it would probably appear unbelievable for what he went through. It was touching, inspiring and makes any small problems I had growing up seem like tiny paper cuts in the giant book of life.
We spent the next few days with mornings of about 4 hours of in depth discussions about all aspects of photography, life, and business. Sometimes trying to help us figure out how they all fit together was sometimes challenging. The afternoons were considered Marfa time where we can shoot whatever we want and explore the town. Only thing is they have like a siesta time so if you don’t eat lunch by like 12-1pm you better get a Cliff bar to fill up on. Also most places in town are also only open Friday-Sunday.
I jumped into the pool to do some test shots with my new underwater Nikonos film camera. Can’t wait to use it this year for my beach sessions!
During Marfa Time I explored the Prada art installation which is a fake Prada store in the middle of the desert about 30 minutes outside of town. It is pretty funny to see it in the open desert with nothing around. Also driving back to El Cosmico there were all kinds of interesting people to capture. I even did an entire rock band’s portraits as they were just walking around and exploring the grounds.
While coming back to my Airstream trailer before lunch I met this incredible band that was on tour wandering around El Cosmico.
Met this guy outside of the local DQ and he gave me his card which read “professional custodian”.
These were a few of the professional photographers that attended the workshop with me.
The second night Clayton scheduled us all tickets at this amazing Observatory about 35 minutes up into the mountains. The views and scenery along the drive were otherworldly! There was these four telescopes set up where we can view details of the moon, Jupiter and its four moons and there were inside presentations as well. This was a cool experience that added so much to our overall trip.
STYLIZED MODEL SHOOT in THE DESERT
The final evening was a shrimp bake dinner and a model shoot in the desert at sunset. We drove up about a mile from El Cosmico to this dirt road that led into the desert where Clayton had four models (these were no professional models but they were damn good!) a custom detailed table, cake on a pedestal and golden vintage telescope. I must have ripped through like 10+ rolls of film in less than an hour of shooting. It was incredible!
Overall I had a pretty damn adventurous experience! The three things I learned were to stylize details that match couples overall look and feel of their wedding, to shoot a few film stocks differently than I normally would create a different appearance in my final work, to find out what is important to me in my life and use it to create personal photo projects that reflect more of what’s inside myself, and that you can overcome any obstacles in life once you find something meaningful and give you fulfillment. Thanks to Jonathan Canlas, Clayton Austin, all the helpers there who cooked & cleaned and to all of the other attendees who were just awesome.