For one weekend, photographers attending T&F Camera Shop's Civil War Photography Workshop will do more than photograph reenactors. They will enter the encampment as members of the T&F Civil War Photography Corps, taking on the role of Field Photographers assigned to create a visual record of the people, atmosphere, and unfolding events around them.

The Civil War was the first large and prolonged conflict to be extensively documented through photography. Photographers such as Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy O'Sullivan transported cumbersome cameras, glass plates, chemicals, and portable darkrooms into the field. Their photographs allowed the public to see soldiers, military camps, damaged landscapes, and the aftermath of battle in a way that had never before been possible. Because nineteenth-century cameras required long exposure times, Civil War photographers could not freeze battlefield action as photographers can today. They photographed portraits, camp activities, military preparations, locations, and the aftermath of combat. Their work helped establish photography as a new powerful tool for documenting history. From October 30 through November 1, 2026, participants in T&F Camera's fourth annual Workshop in the Woods will explore that tradition from both a historical and modern perspective. The Studio in the Woods will be transformed into a Civil War encampment with reenactors in period clothing, military camp scenes, replica weapons, campfires, the period-style chapel, wooded locations, and carefully created photographic scenarios.

Each Field Photographer will move through the experience with a modern camera while also receiving hands-on instruction with two Civil War-era cameras. Participants will be challenged to think like photojournalists: observe the environment, anticipate meaningful moments, document important details, create visual narratives, and photograph the individuals whose experiences make history personal.

Three Photographic Perspectives

Rick Friedman, a nationally known photojournalist, will teach participants how to examine a scene as a working news photographer. His instruction will emphasize observation, anticipation, storytelling, environmental portraiture, and practical location lighting. Participants will learn to create a collection of images that communicates what is happening, who is involved, and why the moment matters.

Rick Ferro will concentrate on posing, expression, portrait construction, and the use of studio and available light. Working within the Civil War setting, Ferro will demonstrate how adjustments to the subject, clothing, hands, body position, background, and light can transform a simple photograph into a convincing historical portrait.

Vanelli will bring a dramatic contemporary style to the assignment. He will teach participants how to use lighting, composition, and camera technique to create gritty, emotionally powerful photographs. Vanelli will then guide the Field Photographers into the modern digital darkroom, where they will use Luminar Neo to edit and finish selected images while preserving the mood and historical character of the original scene.

The instructors will teach from within the environment, frequently approaching the sessions from the perspective of photographers assigned to document the encampment. Participants will move among the reenactors, photograph military and civilian portraits, document camp life, capture staged action sequences, work with dramatic lighting, and build a visual account of the weekend.

This is not simply a history program, a reenactment, or a traditional photography class. It is an immersive photographic assignment connecting the beginnings of American war photography with the equipment, creative lighting, visual storytelling, and editing tools available today.

By the conclusion of the workshop, members of the T&F Civil War Photography Corps will leave with more than individual portraits. They will have created their own visual record of an earlier time-and gained a better understanding of how photographers help determine what future generations will see and remember.

The Civil War Photography Workshop will be held October 30 through November 1, 2026, at T&F Camera Shop's Studio in the Woods in Vineland, New Jersey. For information and registration, visit tfcamerashop.com or call 856-691-5328.