Landscape as Language: Developing Meaning in Place, a Masterclass with Daniel Gregory - Fall 2026

Schedule
Friday, November 6 | 12-5pm at PCNW
Saturday, November 7 | 8-11am at Kubota Garden, break for lunch, 2-6pm at Location TBA (within 90-minutes of Seattle)
Sunday, November 8 | 12-5pm at PCNW

Landscape photography is one of the oldest subject matters in photography. What was once defined by dramatic light, open and sweeping vistas, and technical mastery is now pushed into new directions and purposes. While some tenants and modern work remain tied to those earlier concepts, the most compelling contemporary landscape work doesn't simply document a place; it uses place as a language. It becomes a way to articulate ideas, experiences, cultural identity, and ecological awareness that exist before, during, and long after the making of the image behind the camera.

This masterclass is built around that full arc of language. How we compose, frame, and experience a place are often defined or influenced before we ever raise a camera to our eye. These descriptions of the landscape, what we experience in the landscape, and the stories we carry about it shape and influence everything about the frame and compositions. Many of these thematic questions are quietly already part of our process. They act as an internal language defining our work whether or not we're aware of it. The goal of this class is to make it more conscious and moving towards intentionality in the work.

In the field, we'll discuss and practice how visual decisions such as point of view, depth of field, framing and location become the grammar of your landscape language: These aren't just technical choices, but rather they are part of the statements you make about the landscape in your work. They reveal what you value, what you fear losing, what you're trying to understand.

We will also focus on how your landscape language influences and is directly tied to processing, sequencing, editing, and speaking about your work. The way you describe a photograph, title it, or place it alongside other images continues to build meaning and define its identity as a whole. Image and word are not separate tools; they are in constant conversation.

Through lecture, group critique, and a guided shooting session, you will develop a more intentional relationship with both the ideas you carry into the field and the images upi bring back from it. These concepts and techniques will help you work toward a body of work with a clear conceptual voice and a sense of identity that is distinctly your own. Whether you're drawn to the intimate or the expansive, the familiar or the remote, this class will help you ask harder questions of your landscape work: What does this place mean to you? What are you trying to say, and is your image actually saying it?

Learning Objectives

• Develop a more intentional, concept-driven approach to landscape photography
• Identify the themes and ideas already present in your existing work
• Understand how composition, light, and subject shape interpretation
• Recognize how landscape photography is evolving in contemporary practice
• Begin building a cohesive project with conceptual clarity and a consistent visual voice

Participants are expected to:

• Have working, proficient knowledge of camera settings and operations (use in manual mode, setting ISO/Shutterspeed/Aperture, metering, etc.), alongside photographic concepts such as exposure and composition.
• Have skills in post-processing through either Lightroom/Photoshop or darkroom printing in order to generate prints.
• Prepare a small body of work (8-15 images) in print form for critique and group exercise for Friday and Sunday sessions.

Images © Daniel Gregory