Forty years ago, shortly after working for a year and a half as an editorial assistant at Aperture
(and using many of the contacts he'd made there), Peter Schlessinger opened a photography
workshop center called Apeiron Workshops. Located two hours north of New York City in
Millerton, N.Y., and based on methods of focusing attention taught by Aperture's editor, Minor
White, Apeiron offered immersive residential programs of various lengths. It's summer programs
offered workshops with an A-list of creative photographers of the time, including Berenice
Abbott, Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Paul Caponigro, Linda Connor, Judy Dater, Robert Frank,
Lee Friedlander, Ralph Gibson, Emmet Gowin, Robert Heinecken, Elaine Mayes, Lisette Model,
Aaron Siskind, Frederick Sommer, and Garry Winogrand, plus Magnum photographers Charles
Harbutt, Mary Ellen Mark, Susan Meiselas, Gilles Peress, and Burk Uzzle. Eventually, Apeiron
would also run longer (three-month) spring and fall programs, teach in the public schools, offer a
selection of traveling exhibitions, run specialized workshops for teachers, and offer theoretical
conferences. During its 12-year tenure, Apeiron published Linda Connors first book, Solos, and
mounted one of the largest NEA-funded photographic surveys, The Long Island Project. Always
run on a shoestring and the heroic commitment of its near-volunteer staff, it closed in 1982 as
interest rates hit 18 percent and President Reagan slashed the NEA's funding.