About...
Don Werthmann is a teacher and digital photographic artist. For ten years he has taught studio and location lighting, color theory, digital printmaking, and portfolio development at an undisclosed, yet highly regarded public institution in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
As a Visiting Scholar at The Japan Center for Michigan Universities, in Hikone, Japan, Don offers college students an immersion experience to study photography abroad. He holds M.A. and B.F.A. degrees in digital and traditional photographic imaging, respectively, from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Immediately after obtaining his undergraduate degree, he worked as a freelance photographic assistant in several automotive studios around the Detroit area. Over those five-plus years he found opportunities to work with over 40 commercial photographers, which was inclusive of other markets around the United States — New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and Phoenix. His contact with Japanese camera crews on automotive catalog jobs produced in Detroit, sparked his interest in Asian cultures, which has perpetuated into the years being spent in academia.
His eight years at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, proved to be where he discovered teaching to be his calling, and as Operations Manager, found the organizational skills garnered in the commercial world to be invaluable instruments for photographic education.
