Carly Sullens is a photographic artist and educator who helps photographers see beyond traditional photography and explore what the medium can become. Through abstraction, ICM, experimentation, and digital artistry, she teaches photographers how to stretch the medium while developing a more personal creative direction.

Carly offers lectures, workshops, and immersive creative programs for photography organizations, museums, conferences, retreats, and artist communities.

  • Intent to Image: The Choices Behind Your Photographs
    Intent to Image helps photographers better understand how the way they see, frame, and interpret what is in front of them drives the work they create. That clarity can strengthen portfolios, help attract clients who value what sets them apart, and provide greater direction for both client work and personal photography projects, from capture through the finished image.

  • Beyond Sharp and Still: Creative Ways to Use the Camera
    Beyond Sharp and Still explores creative ways to use the camera as more than a tool for recording what is in front of you. Through movement, abstraction, layering, and experimental in-camera techniques, photographers learn to move beyond literal capture and create images with greater expression and personal point of view.

  • Beyond the Basics: Editing as an Act of Creative Expression
    Editing is more than fixing exposure, color, or distractions; it’s where many of the creative decisions that define an image happen. This workshop helps photographers move beyond simply polishing a photograph and use editing with greater purpose to strengthen mood, meaning, and the way the finished image is experienced.

  • Aligned: A Brand Built Around Your Photography
    Photographers’ work evolves, but their websites, social media, and branding do not always evolve with it. Aligned helps photographers recognize what still fits, what no longer does, and how to realign their visual identity, platform, and business direction with the photography they are making now.

Custom Programs
Programs can be adapted for photography organizations, museums, retreats, and creative communities.

Speaking & Workshops

View Speaker Packet

Selected Teaching & Speaking

  • Santa Fe Workshops, 2025

  • International Photography Hall of Fame, 2025

  • Professional Photographers of Michigan, 2026

  • American Art Therapy Association, 2026

  • Cleveland Museum of Art / PPNEO, 2026

Bring Carly to Your Community

Programs can be tailored for half-day, full-day, retreat, conference, museum, and virtual formats.

Inquire About Speaking & Workshops

What People are Saying.

  • “There are wonderful artists and wonderful teachers. Carly is both. Her ability to uncomplicate a sometimes very complicated process will not only motivate you but give you confidence and inspiration to make your own original digital photo painting."

    Mark Weber

    -M.Photog, Cr., M. Artist, CPP

  • "Carly is an amazing artist and just as inspiring as a teacher! Her expertise is evident in her artwork, but what sets her apart from other instructors is her passion for sharing her knowledge and her passion for unique digital creations. "

    Jim Cryer

    -Photographer for 15 years

  • "Thank you, Carly. It helps to see our work through your eyes, and teaches us to look for such subtleties as you described. We improve when we can see our work, not as just another edit, but as an outcome that is emotive, powerful, and communicates visually. You help us do that. Much appreciated!"

    Gene Grate

    -Photographer for decades

  • "You don’t want to miss a chance to learn from Carly! Just after taking one class with her, I was able to elevate my photography and creativity! Now I am producing digital art that people are amazed by!”

    Frank Sreshta

    -Photographer for 7 years

  • "Carly is incredibly knowledgeable, sharing practical tips and tricks through each lesson, and is thoroughly inspiring. Any ounce of overwhelm was quickly replaced with fun and allowed for my own creativity.”

    Shaunti Kelley

    -Beginner Photographer

  • “I’d long aspired to transform my photographic images into expressive digital art. Had tried, many options and was frustratingly never satisfied with the outcomes. Her clear, inspiring guidance finally made that possible. Her approach gave me both the confidence and the tools to bring deeper emotion and creativity into my work. As one of her statements mentions… ‘Helping artists move beyond technique into authentic expression’. That truly happened and am very grateful of Carly’s efforts to share her talents.”

    - Rob Meiring A photographer for decades, ranked amongst some of the top Men’s ASP competitors during the late 70s.