FINDING YOUR OWN VISION - 2 (about the workshop)

For some reason I felt rather apprehensive about this workshop. Can not ever see myself doing this kind of work, at this level at least, and am wary of being drawn into an art world where hype so often seems to be used to hide the need for money.

Looking at old work I have done, I see good work that somehow has not found the light. Maybe I am a sad old geezer dreaming of success yet maybe I can look again at past work and see a way it might be seen by others.

The following is from the Magnum website and details the workshop ...L
ondon: Finding Your Vision

Through group portfolio reviews, discussions, presentations, and an editing exercise, this weekend intensive workshop will help photographers begin to understand their own distinct way of seeing the world, and discuss their next step photographically.

A workshop for photographers at all levels – from serious amateurs to professional photographers – this weekend workshop will begin on Friday night with a welcome reception and intimate slide talk and conversation with the Webbs. The next morning will begin with reviews of each participant's work by Alex and Rebecca – a creative team who often edit projects, books, and exhibitions together, including their joint book and museum exhibition, Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba –– a process that will serve as a jumping off point for a larger discussion about various photographic issues, including the process of photographing spontaneously and intuitively, how to edit photographs intuitively, the emotional and psychological implications of working in color vs. black and white, how to work in cultures different than one’s own, the difference between images in a book and images on the wall (all participants will be invited to Alex’s opening/book launch of The Suffering of Light: Thirty Years of Photographs at the Magnum Print Room on Thursday, June 16, which is an optional event for participants), and how long-term projects can evolve into books and exhibitions. The workshop will explore how to find or deepen one’s vision, and discuss what each photographer’s next step photographically might be. Participants should be prepared to ask questions, as these concerns will help shape the ultimate direction of the workshop.

WHAT TO BRING: Participants should bring about 30-40 PRINTS (Please bring prints, NOT digital files. The prints don’t have to be fine prints, they can be small, inexpensive work prints, such as inkjet prints. The main focus is the image, NOT the quality of the print.). Those working in series of photographs should bring a selection of photographs from two or three series, or an excerpt from a long-term project. We are interested in each participant’s individual vision, rather than whether he or she can work professionally or not. So bring the personal project or projects –– the work that represents your passions, your obsessions –– not the set of portraits done simply to satisfy an editor or art director.

For the Sunday class, those photographers working on long-term project are welcome to bring up to 40 additional small prints from a project, which we will look at, time permitting.

THE WORKSHOP TEACHERS:

Alex Webb is best known for his vibrant and complex color work, especially from Latin America and the Caribbean. He has published eight books, including Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names, and his ninth, The Suffering of Light: Thirty Years of Photographs, will be published in spring 2011 (Aperture/Thames and Hudson, UK Edition). Alex has exhibited at museums worldwide including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, and the Guggenheim Museum, NY. Alex became a full member of Magnum Photos in 1979. His work has appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times Magazine, Geo, and other magazines. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 for continuing working in Cuba, and the Premio Internacional de Fotografia Alcobendas in 2009.

For the past decade, Rebecca Norris Webb has been exploring the complicated relationship between people and the natural world. Originally a poet, she has shown her photographic work internationally, including at the George Eastman House Museum and Ricco Maresca Gallery, New York. Her first book, The Glass Between Us, was published in 2006, and her second book, Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba (with Alex Webb), was published in November 2009. Her photographs are in the collections of the George Eastman House Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, and she is represented by the Photographers’ Gallery in London. Rebecca’s work has appeared in Time, New Letters, Orion, and other magazines. Her third book, My Dakota, will be published in 2012 by Radius, and exhibited at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Alex and Rebecca will have a joint exhibition of their Cuba photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from May 2011 to January 2012, and the Hong Kong Photo Festival in fall 2012. The couple is currently collaborating on a project in the U.S.