Inside the Heart of the Dynamic Nude Workshop

The art of photography is like a language. To communicate ideas and emotions, artists must speak with light, color, composition and symbolism. Learning to speak fluently demands that passionate students fully immerse themselves in the culture of this language.

The Dynamic Nude Workshop is a full immersion in the mysterious language of art and photography. World-class teachers Joel Belmont and Craig Blacklock lead a team of participants and experienced models deep into nature on a quest to create. During this seven-day adventure, they leave behind the pressures and agendas of daily life to give themselves entirely to artistic exploration.

Photographers, when saturated in the process, discover new capacities. They capture images that express sublime and subtle visions that transcend the spoken language’s capacity to convey meaning. For many, seeing the human form juxtaposed against an endless series of awe-inspiring backgrounds provides an entirely new way of experiencing the the world.

The models on this journey must also learn a new language of self expression. Rather than striking poses, they dance with the world around them. Vulnerably exposed against the majestic desert landscape, they are often physically tested by the creative opportunities presented by the natural setting. Naked, they come into direct contact with the rocks, the trees, the air and the water. Curling up like a stone, swaying with a tree and laughing with the wind, they become like shapeshifters, discovering that their true nature is one with the world.

From this collaboration of model and photographer, great works of art are born. The images from the Dynamic Nude Workshop represent some of the most powerful and elegant human body images you will ever see in nature.

Photographers who participate in this experience get a generous taste of artistic excellence as they learn the language of mastery, while the models who give themselves to this process return to their daily lives renewed and redefined. Instead of seeing themselves identified in by the context and expectations of daily life, they realize themselves within the context of nature, the wider world – and indeed, all creation.