Michael Ackerman: Personal documentary: Interior

Teacher: Michael Ackerman

During the workshop, the students will be learning to use photography (or a combination of mediums) in order to explore and express what is truly meaningful to themselves - their own attitude about what it means to be alive in this world, their own vision. 

Using the surroundings in Kuldīga and the camp, the participants will be asked to find something, someone, or someplace that speaks to them in a unique and personal way. They will return to it repeatedly during the workshop to make a succession of images portraying both the subject and their own relationship with it. Throughout the process, they will be encouraged to shed preexisting or imposed rules about what it means to be a good photographer, to dig deep in an attempt to get closer to their own needs and beliefs.

If already engaged in something, the students should bring that material with them. In this case, the work at ISSP will focus on taking that further. The teacher will share his approach to photography along with showing projects and short films by others that have been inspirational for him personally and that approach photographic documentary in diverse ways.

© Michael Ackerman, Warsaw, 2009