How does one get up close and interact with world-class photographers when social distancing is enforced? In the past seven years, the creative collective Out of Chicago has produced immersive, hands-on photography conferences in epic outdoor destinations such as Moab, Yosemite, and Acadia National Park, bringing together more than a dozen world-class photographers to teach and shoot side-by-side with attendees. When COVID-19 began to cancel everyone's photography workshops and events, Out of Chicago’s founder Chris Smith saw the opportunity to do something different that would support the organization’s photo instructor community, and B&H jumped in as a sponsor.
For several years, Smith and his team had been researching and considering an online event, but since the collective’s niche was always teaching destination-oriented, hands-on events, the time was never right. Yet, after listening to the escalating news about the novel coronavirus this past March, Smith and his team decided to launch Out of Chicago LIVE!, An Online Global Photography Conference.
Within five days they had a website, and 70+ leading instructors from their photography community had signed up to teach. The team had already been working with the technology, but just needed to flush it out. As registration began, it quickly became clear that people were excited about the new event.
There have been several live photo challenges leading up to the conference to provide weekly inspiration for people stuck at home. Participants post their results in the designated Community forum to get a critique and engage with others.
"Right now, we can't be out photographing in places like Longwood Garden, Yosemite, or Moab,” says Smith, “but attendees are getting out of their comfort zone and learning in a new way from lessons such as ‘The Royal Photo Challenge,’ with macro photographer Monica Royal. They've created some amazing works of art with only paper as the subject."
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