New kind of Master & Apprentice based Academy for Art and Photography

Want to join in early for the initial launch? Jump on the waiting list now over at The Arcanum! We’re bringing back the Master & Apprentice method of teaching photography and art through modern technology. Come join with us in the new online movement and explore your own, personal, artistic path.

We’ve got some great Masters now for the first batch too, and we’ll have many more soon. But here are just a few Doug Kaye, Thomas Hawk, Catherine Hall, Karen Hutton, Jeremy Cowart, Dallas Nagata White, Frederick Van Johnson, Dallas Nagata White, Gordon Laing, Nicole S. Young, Doug Kaye, Alexia Sinclair, Laurie Rubin, Lisa Bettany, Dave Cross, Jaime Ibarra, Miss Aniela, Jason Law, Brian Matiash, Mike Hollman, Frank Doorhof, Mike Langford, Jackie Ranken, Doug Kaye, Tim Pierce, Bel Jones, Cliff Baise, Peter Adams, James Brandon, Alex Koloskov, Damion Hamilton and even more! Those names took a long time to type in, but they are worth it! Honestly, I am so excited to work with these amazing people — we’re building something completely new, in a way. This idea of Master & Apprentice is very powerful, and we are going to build this new kind of self-replicating Academy from the ground up in an organic way.

I am truly honored to be spending time with such excellent Masters. My theory is that the knowledge that is in their heads is extremely valuable, and the best and most human way to unlock it is by establishing Master & Apprentice relationships. This system allows the idea to flourish and self-replication. I know that even me, personally, if I could have someone like an Alexia Sinclair to mentor me, give me challenges, critique my work — how awesome would that be? I’d never forget it! I did the same thing with Jaime Ibarra , but I actually had to drive over to his house in Austin and have him show me stuff. How inconvenient! And it’s much better than just watching his videos on the Internet; often times watching videos on the Internet feels sterile and lonely without a human connection.

But I could go on and on… Pop on over to The Arcanum and see and read more for yourself!

Thanks Peter Adams!

Many people have been saying lots of very nice and exciting things today. I hate to pull just one out, but here’s a nice take on everything from one of the Masters, Peter Adams:

The Arcanum Launches!

Here’s another big idea from +Trey Ratcliff.

I’m super excited to be a part of this and here’s why…

Many of the photographers that I consider living masters today got their start as “assistants” to other photographers. They agreed to work all hours of the day/night (for very low pay) in order to learn the craft from their master. Needless to say, being a photographer’s assistant isn’t something that everyone can do.

What’s so cool about The Arcanum is that technology now makes this same master/apprentice learning model much more accessible to a far wider group of photographers. Apprentices can access/learn from masters but do so at their own speed and on their own terms.

If you’ve ever been on a photowalk with Trey (or any of us) you might have experienced shades of this. It could have been while listening to how/why a shot was setup, watching how flash can be used to light a scene, or just getting feedback on your technique.

Well, now there’s a way to take your learning process to the next level by tapping into that kind of coaching/feedback on a 1:1, ongoing, basis.

I’ll see you at The Arcanum.