By Kelly Ebbels

This summer, fashion photography veteran Steven Silverstein spearheaded two ten-day crash courses for students at the Brooks Institute interested in learning more about the world of editorial fashion photography. During the course he lent his expertise and connections in the world’s most stylish city to 28 young photographers.

“Fashion really originates in Europe. For the students to be in front of the fashion they were shooting—it was an amazing experience,” he says.

Going back to France with a troupe of student photographers, Silverstein says, was a matter of pulling out his book of contact numbers. As a photographer for French Elle, Vogue Homme, Harper’s Bazaar and Italian Vogue, Silverstein spent much of the 1980s and 90s crafting fashion photo shoots with the same agencies the students were given access to in Paris.

“For me it was like my backyard. All they had to do was step up to the plate and shoot,” he says.

Although the Brooks Institute is known for hands-on teaching methods, it had no such programs available in fashion photography. During a workshop at Brooks last year, Silverstein pitched the impromptu idea for a Paris workshop and found a ton of support at the school. He and his wife Gina—through their company Photographic Commerce LLC—organized the first trip to Paris with nine students, just last year.

Each trip was structured around photo shoots at different locations, complete with pro models, make-up and stylists. Students shot male models in a studio and female models at different on-site locations, including the famously gilded Pont Neuf, which stretches across the Seine.

For Rodrigo Palma, a student in commercial photography at Brooks, the intense hands-on experience pushed him to think on his feet.

“In school you build up a concept and then apply it. But in the real world you need to get your ideas and blend the end result with what the employer wants. You have to put your own touch on it in a high-pressure situation,” Palma says.

He added that the workshop allowed him to hone his own journalistic style, which tends to shy away from heavily stylized shots. Instead, he likes to focus on candid fashion portraits.

“I like to get more of an emotion or a moment of a person’s life,” he says.

As a sponsor, Nikon provided new D3 cameras to the students and several pro lenses, which were with the students at all times—day and night.

Although Silverstein attests the photos are of professional quality, the purpose of the workshop was educational in nature rather than commercial. “My goal was to give them a glimpse of what it means to be an editorial fashion photographer,” he says.

Next summer will see a new trip to Paris, complete with shoots at different venues. And Silverstein’s company, Photographic Commerce, intends to make similar programs available with other schools.