ISSP Programme
The main objective of each participant during the week of ISSP is to create a coherent body of individual photographic work under the guidance and support of their workshop teacher.
While working on their individual projects, the students are drawn into an intense learning process through interaction with their teacher, groupmates and other participants, evening presentations and lectures, portfolio reviews, and the overall flow of the camp.
The feedback from the previous years confirms that the format of ISSP works miraculously well - the learning progress generated by the participants in the concentrated time of one week is truly amazing.
Workshops
The work in the workshop is the major focus during the ISSP. Each workshop contains around 10 students and a teacher, who is setting the general frame for activities within the workshop every day, from Sunday to Friday. The teacher is a master sharing his/her knowledge, guiding and supporting the learning process of the students. That given, it is up to the students to get the most out of the workshops - their involvement, openness and interest will determine their personal benefit from ISSP.
While the general topics of the workshops are fixed - see workshops & teachers - the participants are free to choose a specific focus for their own final series of work. The only requirement is that each student must produce a minimum of 3 prints for the Exhibition.
Lab facilities: a local lab for black and white processing and printing and a digital computer lab with scanners and printers will be available for participants’ use on the campus, and a lab in Ludza can be used for analogue printing.
Evening programme
Presentations by ISSP teachers’ and talks by invited guests take place in the evenings, after dinner. This joint part of the programme shifts the attention from the workshops to broader subject of photography and is designed as an extra venue for gaining impressions and inspirations, exchanging ideas, or just having a good time.
The ISSP evening programme is open to the general public and interested guests (those motivated enough to join us in Ludza) – if you are not a participant of ISSP but wish to attend, please contact the organizers. Guests are responsible for the entire logistics of their stay themselves.
Portfolio reviews
One afternoon is set aside for portfolio reviews by the ISSP teachers and invited experts. Subscription in advance is necessary. NB! don’t forget to take your portfolio! :)
Exhibition
On Saturday after a week’s work, an exhibition of ISSP participants projects is opened in the town of Ludza. The students are directly engaged in designing and installing the exhibition. The exhibition showcases the results of the School and remains open to visitors for several weeks after the ISSP. Traditionally, a selection of works travels to Riga later in the fall. The final works of the previous years’ participants are available at the gallery of this site.
Each year, selected works are also published in the ISSP Catalogue.
Preliminary ISSP 2010 daily programme is available here (*the yoga is optional;-)