Tillman Crane

Tillman Crane is a veteran photographer specializing in the creation of platinum/palladium photographs. Artist and teacher, Crane has been professionally involved with photography for over thirty- five years. He uses available light, texture and space to bring the spirit of the ordinary and extraordinary in his photographs.

A skilled teacher, Crane offers workshops for all levels of expertise and camera formats in a variety of locations, for his own as well as other photography workshop venues. These Spirit of Structure workshops include locations in the US, Scotland & the Orkney Islands, Japan and China. Crane also teaches the craft of platinum printing for groups and private individuals.

Crane has published four limited edition books: Tillman Crane/Structure (2001), Touchstones (2005), Odin Stone (2008) and A Walk Along the Jordan (2009). The Alchemy of Light (2016) is a hard cover catalogue of his solo exhibit of over 100 platinum prints at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing. Crane also collaborates with collectors to create one-of-a-kind handmade books of his platinum/palladium prints.

Donna Crane will be joining and assisting during your journey. In addition to her role as CEO, CFO, and CBW (Chief Bottle Washer) for Tillman Crane Photography, Donna brings a unique perspective to the art of photography. With almost 40 years of photographic immersion, she adds an eye for color, composition, and patterns out of her long-term passion for the fiber arts. Working closely together, whether editing prints for books, exhibits or in a workshop, each brings a genuine curiosity about the people, location, and the world which adds to the congenial, small-group workshop experience.

A Note from Tillman:
Why use my iPhone as a travel camera? I am often asked this question, because for most of my 46+ years as a working photographer I used large format cameras and film.

For myself, when digital cameras gave my negatives more information than I could get on film, I took the plunge into digital cameras. I make big platinum/palladium prints and these need a negative with a great amount of information. The switch to a digital camera system still left me with bags of equipment and I wanted to travel more lightly, without the restrictions to tripods in many places I wanted to photograph and capture the information for the negative I needed.

I started playing with my iPhone and the more I found it could do, the more intrigued I became about its capabilities as a travel camera. I decided to walk my talk for a recent workshop to Italy to teach iPhone photography. Will it replace the medium format Fuji cameras I use for my professional work? No but traveling with just my phone made it possible for my wife and I to discover so many places we hadn’t been able to before because it was so easy to move around. I had plenty of images to work with when I got home, and my spouse has enthusiastically signed up to traveling more with me while I photograph. These are my reasons for using the iPhone as my travel camera.