About Us
INSTRUCTORS:
Sarah Blesener, Brian L. Frank and Jenny Jacklin-Stratton
Sarah, Jenny and Brian have nurtured a collaborative family for many years. A family we affectionately refer to as our love trio, it is a relationship built on the foundational idea that in order to healthily and honestly create long-form storytelling works with impact, visual storytellers need to rely on each other for all forms of support, from the creative and emotional to the logistic. As storytellers we often found ourselves lost in what felt a hopeless maze of emotions, without even the most basic networks of colleagues to lean on. So we leaned on each other and developed healthier approaches to working in visual media collaboratively.
Tacet Eye is our desire to share that support with others.
For us this is more than a workshop--it is an ongoing community of practice that seeks to provide members a collaborative space for support that sustains them through the peaks and valleys of creating long-form visual documentary work.
We believe in a nothing off-limits, transparent approach is the only way to move visual storytelling forward ethically. We seek to shatter the opaque, dated heirarchies of media which often limit and isolate visual creatives.
Our approach to community and skill building combines non-traditional resources; drawing from music, poetry, literature, film, trauma-informed care and critical theory to help inform how we craft visual narratives.
Image from Brian L Frank
BEHIND THE NAME
With origins in musical terminology-- tacet is the moment when a musician takes a pause, an inhale, an intentional moment of silence. Tacet is the moment that sets the stage for inspiration and creation.
The tacet moment allows for a collective breath;
a moment of stillness and transition to the vibrant world of sound and vision…. it is in this moment of uncertainty and anticipation that the artist and audience can center themselves in the present and prepare to communicate with emotion. Both frail and powerful, this moment is one in which creativity can blossom as bridges are created between the heart and mind, in art.
It can be a terrible experience to reach the fleeting interlude and feel alone and yet an incredibly powerful one to reach this space in community with others. Tacet Eye seeks to be a space for collective support in moments of both creative peril and joy-- built on the premise, that when we share together without competion, we thrive together.
FORMER GUEST SPEAKERS
• Mark Murrmann, Mother Jones
• Justin Maxon, Humboldt State
• September Dawn Bottoms, Photojournalist
• Talia Herman, Photojournalist