Masters & workshops 2016
Photography as a starting point of infinite possibilities
By Anouk Kruithof
The workshop will go beyond seeing photography as a single image or photo-series to discovering it as a source of infinite possibilities. We will work with groups of images selected and brought by the participants (these could be your own or found photos, archival photographs, anything that seems meaningful to you) with the aim to transform them into a spatial installation or sculpture, a book, a performance, or an interdisciplinary situation.
The idea is to question the source of images, to find a way to work with them and to transform them according to your consideration of the source’s content. The participants will first define what they wish to tell, question or express with their chosen imagery, in order to find a way to transform it into a final outcome. The result may have an unlimited range of forms, depending on what you find best to suit your expression. The process of re-thinking and contextualizing the images is as important as what you eventually create as a result.
The resulting works will be presented as part of the final exhibition but also as an activated space – possibly a presentation with happenings, where the public can come and look, listen and maybe even participate.
Prior requirements for the participants
The workshop is open to photographers or any image-based artists. The participants will be have a to bring a group of images (20 – 100) – either their own or found, that have special meaning to them, to work with during the workshop.
Anouk Kruithof (1981) is a Dutch artist based in New York. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions such as: The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; MBAL Switzerland; The Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen China; The Center for Photography at Woodstock; Multimedia Art Museum in Moskow, Erarta Museum, St. Petersburg; Culture and Arts Center, Daegu Korea; Capitain-Petzel Gallery, Berlin; Temporare Kunsthalle, Berlin, Autocenter Berlin; ICP, New York; Capricious Gallery, New York, Higher Pictures Gallery, New York, Museum het Domein Sittard, the Netherlands; BoetzelaerINispen Amsterdam, FOAM Amsterdam; The Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam; MARCA museum Catanzaro, Italy; MAMAC (museum for modern and contemporary art) Liege, Belgium; among others. Her installation Subconscious Travelling was included in MoMA’s New Photography exhibition Ocean of Images in 2015 – 2016.
On her publishing platform stresspress.biz she presents the nine artist-books she published so far including: The Bungalow; Untitled (I’ve taken too many photos / I’ve never taken a photo) self-published (stresspress.biz); Pixel-stress; A head with wings, among others.
Kruithof is also co-creator, director and jury member of the new Anamorphosis Prize, which will award $10,000, no strings attached, to the creator of the best self-published photo-book from the previous year.
www.anoukkruithof.nl
Tell me a story (Editing workshop)
By Paolo Woods
I am convinced that photography has its own language. This means that to photograph you have to learn and master this language - it’s vocabulary and grammar, obviously, and its history, inevitably. But more than ever today, any photographic work becomes interesting and necessary if the images are charged with a narrative.
Therefore we need to learn to tell stories: syntax, introduction, narrative and conclusion. Then, of course, we have to go and look for the stories that surround us. We need to learn how to recognize and decipher them and become obsessed with them until we make them our own. We have to learn to respect them. Only then can we start considering style and form. Once we know “what” we wish to communicate, this is the moment to look into the “how”. This is when we tackle all those methodological questions that haunt us when we take photographs. The aim of the workshop is to learn how to translate, into the language of photography, all that we have within and before us and make it understandable, sharable, and visible.
This is a workshop for advanced photographers who wish to develop their narrative skills and give shape to a body of work that they’ve been developing for a while. Throughout the week, each student will work on completing their previously started project as an original and individual story, paying attention to all aspects from language to ethics, from structure to style. In the final stage we will explore the different possibilities of presenting and distributing one’s work: the press, galleries, museums and the net. In a very rapidly changing environment, how and where should our work exist?
Prior requirements for the participants
Bring along an HD with a large selection of your work, not just final images. Depending on the story, we might also produce new images on site, so bring also your cameras, lighting and whatever gear you use when you photograph. Bring lots of energy and an open mind.
Paolo Woods (1970) was born of Canadian and Dutch parentage. He grew up in Italy, lived in Paris and Haiti and now is based in Florence.
Paolo Woods ran a photography gallery and a laboratory before dedicating himself to documentary photography. He is devoted to long-term projects that blend photography with investigative journalism. He has published four books of photography in collaboration with award-winning writer Serge Michel, as well as two other acclaimed books co-signed with writer Arnaud Robert. Most recently, he has worked for three years with photographer Gabriele Galimberti on the project The Heavens, the first photographic investigation into the workings of tax havens. The show has premiered at the Festival of Arles in France and is currently touring worldwide. The book has been selected as one of the best books of 2015.
His work is regularly featured in the main international publications. He has had solo exhibitions in, amongst others, France, US, Italy, Switzerland, China, Spain, Germany, Holland and Haiti and numerous group shows around the world. His pictures are private and public collections including the Musee de l’Elysée, the French National Library, the FNAC, the Sheik Saud Al-Thani collection, the Servais collection. He has received various prizes including two World Press Photos.
www.paolowoods.com
Documentary Experiments: Photographing day, night and in between
By Alejandro Chaskielberg
In this workshop, students will be encouraged to develop their personal voice in photography through experimentation, using light as one of the tools to expand on their practice and represent reality in different ways.
Photography is currently undergoing a major process of change. Increasingly, more and more projects use the photographic medium in an unconventional way. To keep up with the changes, we must constantly challenge ourselves and work to expand our photographic language. During the workshop, we will aim to overcome our preconceptions in order to achieve a more authentic and humanistic way of telling stories. Rather than focusing on purely technical details, the aim will be to equip authors to represent reality in their chosen form, and strengthen the meaning of their narratives. We will experiment with various elements, such as long-exposure night photography, outdoor flash and large-format cameras, among other resources. Students will also be encouraged to incorporate texts, drawings and archival photography. Any kind of experimentation with a lens-based device is welcome.
Each participant will create a story about something they have researched previously or discovered during the workshop week. The activities will consist of shooting, editing, writing and discussing the work. We will talk about the importance of research, approach and technique. The participants are encouraged to work with an enthusiastic, curious and hands-on attitude. In some cases we will collaborate in pairs or groups, so please come with a collaborative spirit!
Prior requirements for the participants
Before the workshop, the participants are encouraged to carry out research about Kuldīga and its surroundings and think of potential stories. It is important to bring a good tripod and a camera with the possibility to do long exposures. It is recommended to bring flashlights, flashes, release cable and any other equipment you wish to work with, as well as any extra photographic materials you want to include in your story. Please also bring a portfolio of your work accompanied by a written statement to discuss during the week.
Alejandro Chaskielberg (Buenos Aires, 1977) has established a worldwide reputation for his innovative vision and sensibility that crosses the boundaries between document and art.
Chaskielberg graduated from the National Institute of Cinematography of Argentina as Director of photography. He received the BURN Emerging Photographer Grant by the Magnum Foundation in 2009 and was titled World Photographer of the Year 2011 by the World Photography Organization. The Boston University awarded him with the Leopold Godowsky Jr. Award, which recognizes excellence in the field of contemporary color photography. In 2008 he was invited by the National Geographic Society to participate in the All Roads Photography Program.
Chaskielberg has developed projects in Asia, América, Africa and Europe. His work was presented at the Brighton Biennial curated by Martin Parr in 2009. He exhibited at the Daegu Photo Biennial in South Korea 2014 and the Ballarat International Photography Biennial, Australia 2015. He is a visiting teacher at the Tokyo Institute of Photography and has recently been one of the masters of the first Latin American Masterclass organized by the World Photography Organization.
www.chaskielberg.com
The Inhabited Image: Walking through the space of perception
by Federico Clavarino
Flâneur project workshop - see info below *
What is the space of a photograph? And what is space inside a photograph? How do we inhabit the spaces opened up to us by images? This workshop will revolve around these questions (and a few more) by proposing first a theoretical walk through disciplines as diverse as philosophy, poetry, painting, sculpture, contemporary art, comics, narrative, and folk wisdom, and two practical assignments the participants will carry out during the week.
The first of the assignments is going to be a physical exploration, something in between the practice of flânerie and a situationist dérive: walking as a means of facilitating a way through significant psychological and spiritual thresholds, photography as a means both of scrutiny and transformation of space. The second assignment will consist of a different, more concentrated, walk. Here the participants will be asked to focus on a specific place or situation they discovered in their previous drifts and to use photography in order to narrate it.
Each participant will be free to decide how to interpret the assignments, both in terms of content and of which tools to use. The resulting work will be edited, sequenced and commented together in a collective process during which everyone will exchange feedback. The result will be displayed in both a group exhibition, as well as a zine.
Prior requirements for the participants
Participants should be ready to interpret their own work and that of others, and to structure a coherent proposal in order to carry out each assignment in a personal way. Participants should also prepare a 5-minute presentation of their previous work. Ah, and bring good shoes.
* The workshop takes place in the framework of the Flâneur: New Urban Narratives project. The participants of EU nationality** are entitled to a subsidized participation fee of 200 EUR.
** In order to qualify for the project fee subsidy you must be a citizen of any of the EU member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Federico Clavarino is a photographer and teacher of photography at BlankPaper school in Madrid. He was born in 1984 in Turin, Italy, where he lived until 22. After a Master’s in literature and creative writing at Alessandro Baricco's Scuola Holden, in 2007 he moved to Madrid where he started studying photography at BlankPaper School with Fosi Vegue. Two years later he was working on his personal photography projects and in 2010 he published his first short essay, La Vertigine. His first photobook, Ukraina Pasport, came out the following year, receiving the PhotoEspaña Award Honourable Mention as best photobook of 2011. At the same time he began working as a teacher for BlankPaper School. In September 2014 Akina Books published his second book, Italia o Italia. The work received good reviews from a number of critics and the original photographs were exhibited in 2015 at the International Photography Festival of Rome. Another of his current projects, Hereafter, received the La Caixa Foundation Fotopres grant in 2014. Still in the making, it will be launched in 2017. In April 2016 his third book, The Castle, was published by Dalpine.
Fantasy Cocktail (Not a fashion photography workshop)
By Jason Evans
Fashion photography can be a great place to speculate about who, where and what we would like to be in the world. Commonly interpreted as non-political eye candy, most fashion images exist to reinforce stereotypes and a general consumerist agenda. However, the intricate constructs and unwritten rules of the game have regularly been subverted to provoke discussion on a range of issues including gender, identity, race, class and aesthetics in a potent fantasy cocktail.
Working in the industry since the early 90s, Jason Evans has maintained a peripheral, critical position to the editorial fashion system, often seeking to promote a broader visual literacy. This workshop will include a series of inspirational presentations, which chart Evans thinking in relation to the representation of style, the group portrait and the constructed image. Together we will explore a range of strategies in the creation of stylised tableaux which embrace pertinent themes like chance and luck, the power of limits, improvisation, the language of gesture and the role of the author. Participants will be invited to work in groups sharing responsibilities and ideas and to engage in a series of exercises which will find them active on both sides of the lens.
Prior requirements for the participants
Bring an open mind and a critical position. Also your camera/s, tripod, light meter and other technical tools you'll need.
Jason Evans (b. 1968) is a multidisciplinary photographer who, since the early 1990s, has had a broad cultural practice. His output developed to include writing and teaching alongside applied image making. He works around art, fashion and street photography tropes making images which are often influenced by vernacular culture. His long term projects with musicians Four tet, Caribou and Radiohead resulted in influential sleeve imagery and portraits which seek to redefine the relationships between sound and image.
His work is exhibited internationally, and his game changing series Strictly is held in the Tate collection. Solo shows include nomination for the Grange Prize at the AGO in Toronto and a retrospective of his Fashion work at the Hyeres Festival du Mode. He has been published and exhibited in several significant contemporary photography surveys, notably David Campany’s defining survey Art and Photography and Charlotte Cotton’s Photography is Magic. His monographs include NYLPT (Mack 2012) and Pictures for looking at (Printed Matter 2014).
Since 2004, Evans has been maintained www.thedailynice.com which celebrates simple pleasures as their own reward. Every day an image of something which made him happy is presented on this one page, non-archived website.
www.jasonevans.info
www.thedailynice.com
There’s Treasure Everywhere
By Taiyo Onorato
This workshop takes Calvin’s declaration, “There’s Treasure Everywhere!” as its starting point. Using our new environment as a place to begin our digging, we too will seek out the extraordinary in the everyday. We will take walks, explore new spaces, and get our hands dirty as we use our fresh perspectives to take a different look at what’s around us. The “treasure” we find will only be the beginning, as we construct tableaux, build props, stage events and put our objects into action.
This workshop encourages the students to be active creators, staying loose and running with new ideas, and using photography as a tool to record the creative process. The workshop will encourage collaboration among students and not put any parameters on what is possible. During the workshop, the discussion of previous student work will be kept to a minimum, as the primary emphasis will be on working freely and quickly to create new work.
Taiyo Onorato - born 1979 in Switzerland, works with photography, film and sculpture. Studied Photography at the ZHDK in Zurich, since 2003 works in collaboration with Nico Krebs. His and Krebs’ work was shown in numerous exhibitions in galleries and institutions, among them in Kunsthalle Mainz, MaMM Moscow, PS1 MoMa NY, CAC Cincinnati, MocP Chicago, Museum Bellpark, Kunsthaus Aarau, EX3 Firenze, Fotomuseum Winterthur. They published „The Great Unreal" with Edition Patrick Frey and "Light of other Days" with Kodoji Press and several self published projects.
http://tonk.ch