2011 Workshop Classes

English

This workshop will explore the multi-faceted approaches to international photojournalism and help guide you on your own path. Participants will learn what is required of a photojournalist, not just in the field but also when it comes to having work published and how to get your work out there. Developing a personal sensitivity and visual style will be emphasized and Haviv will encourage you to work using their instinct rather than formula.

Combining portfolio reviews, assignments, editing sessions, and dialogue, Haviv will also share his own work and experience as a photojournalist in conflict and crisis areas. Portfolio reviews will guide each person’s narrative direction and then be developed through assignments given during the workshop.
Throughout the week, Ron will help you understand the pulse of international journalism today and share his tips on what it takes to cover the world scene. You will leave with a clearer understanding of your next step and be well along the way to defining your personal path forward.

English – Español – Português

This workshop is oriented towards those photographers and photojournalists who want to produce better photo reportages. From the moment of choosing a subject to documenting through the whole process until finishing the reportage. You will also learn how to bring that personal vision into your assignment work. How to please your editors while still keeping your style.

El taller está orientado para aquellos fotógrafos o fotoperiodistas, que quieran mejorar la realización de reportajes gráficos.
Desde el momento de la elección del tema a documentar siguiendo todo el proceso necesario, hasta la finalización del reportaje. También aprenderás a llevar tu vision personal a tu trabajo de asignaciones. Cómo complacer a tus editores y al mismo tiempo mantener tu estilo.

English

It is dangerous and thankless. Very few news organizations want to publish the photos and even fewer people want to actually look at them. Some people call the war in Iraq “the story of our generation.” It is important, without a doubt.  As is Afghanistan. AIDS in Africa. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict. But they are stories people don’t want to see. Maybe they have seen the same images too often. Or maybe they are frustrated by the hopelessness of the situations. We will explore ways to help our photos reach our audience and make them want to pay attention.

English – Español
Don Hewitt, the late creator of “60 Minutes,” had a well-known mantra: “Tell me a story.” Getting to the soul of the subject is the goal of most photographers when setting out to tell a story, create an essay or explore a theme. This workshop is designed to help photographers meet those goals, create compelling stories and essays and pitch them to art buyers, editorial, advertising and corporate markets. The course will be taught by Michael Robinson Chávez and Alex Kornhuber.

We will discuss approaches, what makes a good story, access issues, use of composition and varied lenses, tapping into moments and the intimacy to help elevate your photography to the next level. We can talk subject matter, what appeals to you and why and how it can be translated into a set of photographs. We want to push the envelope and explore all ways to tell the story: from the traditional to the avant-garde.

This will be an intense class. We will ask questions, look at some examples of your work and then you will go out and photograph a story in the streets of Buenos Aires. We will be available during the week to look at your story and find what is working and what is wanting. We expect classmates to join in the critiques and explain why they feel an image may or may not be communicating to them.

A portion of the workshop will be devoted to applying these skills, not to just journalistic markets but corporate, advertising and other editorial venues. Alex can provide key insight into working and selling your ideas and images within Latin America. The workshop will be demanding of your attention and skill but together we will all come out improved photographers and storytellers by the end.

We invite you to join us at the Foundry Workshop this year.

What is documentary photography and what is the documentarians role in the world? These are questions that have very personal answers.
In the week together, students will produce a project in which their assumptions will be challenged on a daily basis by extensive one on one time with the instructor. The first two days will be dedicated to assigning a common project that will be reviewed together in class while researching individual projects that will be pursued during the rest of the week.
This course does not offer any answers on how to navigate through the path towards professional maturity. It suggests a model based on the idea of discovery and self-expression while defying stereotypes and presumptions of objectivity.

As a long time teacher at the International Center of Photography, I find there are two problems photographers always have: editing and telling a story sequentially. During this workshop students will be given two assignments to go out and photograph a story that we will then edit in class. Through presentations on great photo essays and editing exercises, students will develop an articulate and coherent presentation that is distinctly their own. Topics include approaching people with a camera, where and when to take pictures, researching and finding stories, how to begin the editing process, basic workflow methodologies and final sequencing of a story. Students should bring a laptop computer.

English
Tewfic El-Sawy will teach a multimedia class that allows its participants to concentrate on the story, rather than on the application. The purpose and aim of the class is to show photojournalists how to make quick work of slide show production, using their own images and audio generated in the field, to produce a cogent photo story under the simulation of publishing deadlines. Most of the class’s time will be spent photographing in the field, while indoors time will be devoted to weaving the material into photo stories.

This class will require will use Soundslides software, and either Audacity or GarageBand for audio. Participants will need to have Digital Audio Recorders (such as the Zoom H2).

Here’s a sample of a SoundSlides produced by Mike Hutmacher (who attended Tewfic’s class in Mexico) for The Wichita Eagle newspaper:

http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/1130kodachrome/

Dhiraj Singh’s award-winning multimedia piece, My Name is Dechen, was produced at Foundry India 2009.
My Name is Dechen

Have you ever watched an important photojournalistic documentary on the internet?
Have you ever clicked away before it was finished?

Of course you have! But did you ever wonder why?

This class is about creating strong, visual driven stories that will be watched.

It’s a workshop, that taps right into the core of why we became photojournalists in the first place and it’s about telling the stories of those less fortunate on the only platform accessible in the most remote corners of the earth: the Internet.

Available outside the rigid formats of print and exhibitions, the web documentary is a cross format in it’s infancy, fit for the newsroom of the 21st century. This workshop will provide you with the tools to create stories of human interest yourself, and it will provide you with a viable strategy to sell your ‘packaged’ story for multiple formats.

In a combination between classroom sessions, assignments and portfolio reviews you will be coached throughout the week into crafting your own three minute pitch for a larger web documentary. Expect long hours!

10 students maximum.
This class requires you to bring an audio recorder and we will be editing in video software, ie Final Cut Pro/Express, iMovie and the likes.

English
Effecting tangible change through photography is a lofty, difficult and richly rewarding path. To be an agent of change in people’s lives requires fundraising and awareness building, and your images can be the face of an NGOs messaging to make that happen. In the classroom, Ben will draw on eleven years of experience at the international relief and development agency, Food For The Poor, to share how you document reality for an NGO. He will speak about how marketing plays a role in the NGO world and how to stay on the right side of that ethical line, while still accomplishing the organization’s goals and needs. He will also delve into what those needs are and how photography for fundraising is conducted, edited, strategized and produced through the mail and on the web. He will also talk about the different communication styles of NGOs and how you can tailor your work to those styles.

In the field, students will document situations with pre-selected local NGOs, learning first hand what it is like to work with a charity and how to produce images an NGO can use to help the people they serve. Students will be asked to donate the use of their photos to the NGO that has graciously given them access and assistance.

Ben will also cover how to work on personal projects on someone else’s dime. Maintaining and accomplishing personal projects while working as a staff or contract photographer for an NGO is possible and he will talk about the pitfalls of living a double life. While working for Food For The Poor, he has been able to complete about a dozen projects and essays in Latin America and the Caribbean.

He will also discuss the weight and responsibility of bearing witness. Working for a charity comes with the implication that you actually intend to do something to help the people you photograph. It is incumbent on the photographer to do all they can to make certain their photos are used ethically. Although this work is not as stressful and dangerous as conflict photography, the exposure to crushing poverty on a long-term basis and the responsibility of telling those stories is a heavy burden that needs to be managed and this will be discussed as well.

English – algo de Español
Images have the power to open eyes, evoke emotions and instigate change.

But there are more images—and photographers– than ever before and getting your work to stand out requires a new approach and strong point of view.

In this workshop, we will concentrate on groups of powerful images that tell stories. While we are working mainly with still photographs and some writing (important that photographers know how to write about their work), we will aim to create stories that ultimately could become multimedia pieces, so important in today’s new media landscape. Students will discover new and innovative ways to create and share stories through research and class discussion of ideas, daily shooting, and critiques of the work done at the workshop. We will also

Study the work of other photographers including innovative multimedia pieces. Students are highly encouraged to bring portfolios, bodies of work in progress, or recently finished projects, if possible. Maggie would like to see this work too. This workshop offers students a great opportunity to brainstorm about their past and future projects, especially if you are having trouble organizing and directing the work toward your final goal. Participants conclude this workshop with new compelling images and ideas that reflect original thinking and vision, as well as plans for how to present the work. This workshop is very good for re-igniting a photographer’s ideas and enthusiasm for their work.

English
In this class we will explore what keeps many photojournalists in love with their work: the process of developing personal projects that capitalize on the author’s unique voice, strengths, passions and experience. I’ll work closely with each student to produce a photo essay or multimedia package with attention to his or her personal vision and goals as a photographer, both inside and outside the workshop.
Coaching will begin before the workshop starts; you should contact me to discuss your story ideas before the workshop and send samples of your work. During the class, in individual and group critiques, we will also discuss ways to find funding and how to market free standing, photo based packages.
You’re encouraged not required to bring audio or video recording equipment and editing software such as Soundslides, Audacity or Final Cut.

Neal Jackson will teach a survey class in Legal and Business Aspects of Photojournalism. The class will include business and legal aspects of employment as a photographer (freelance and staff), copyright issues including “fair use,” contract terms, licensing of images, rights of privacy and publicity, and negotiating approaches and tactics.

Neal is a US lawyer and formerly Vice President and General Counsel of NPR, the distinguished US nonprofit multimedia news program producer and Web content distributor (www.npr.org). In addition to working as a photographer, he consults on business issues in the photojournalism industry, including serving as chairman of the board of the VII Photo Agency.

Photojournalists spend most of their time in the pursuit of the story, yet very few know how to promote themselves to get the support they need.  Getting your name out there amidst the thousands of other photographers working today can be an overwhelming task, even for established photographers.  This lecture on marketing provides a very easy to use step-by-step approach to marketing your work; covering branding, promotional materials, utilizing modern technology and social media, finding your clients and how to approach them effectively.  Whether you are looking for representation, editorial or commercial assignments, funding for special projects or gallery shows this lecture looks at the bigger picture and will give you a very concrete plan on how to market yourself today with the skills you need to have your work noticed.