Photojournalism Workshop
Creative Non Fiction, Writing The Reality
October, 13 – 14, 2018
Many people ask me for who is the workshop recommended and if particular requirements are needed. From the beginning I decided to open my courses to everyone. Thus at the same workshop for example can participate a professional photojournalist, a 9-year-old girl, people who bought the first camera a few months before, amateur fans who have always photographed.
I do not know any method other than to question ourselves every day, putting at the center of the vision the pure, almost childlike, deeply intuitive attention to reality. Photography is for me a matter of commitment, of practice (the téchne of the Greeks, therefore, “art” but also “know how”), meditation, sensitivity, knowledge, patience. We will start from the cardinal points of the image: Time and Space, in a philosophical, visual and technical sense. We will talk about how to cut out, frame, select the real, i.e. the subjectivity of our gaze.
The point of reference of the shared work will be the analysis of the photographs of your portfolio, of the masters and of my personal work. Your personal projects will be the center of attention, to study together their dramaturgy, composition, rhythm, sequences, counterpoints and graphic. Trying to find out a narrative score, we will analyze the links between photo reportage and cinema, poetry, theater and literary writing. We will talk about the truth and the mystery in photography, which can only be illuminated by yourself. You will be strongly encouraged to investigate your perceptions and your sensitivity, to look for possible developments within it. We will dig into the images, finding sometimes a thread, a fil rouge, a personal nerve. I will try to bring out from each one something, perhaps unexpected, of his/her own and give space to it, with indications how to follow and develop personal sensibilities.
It is a very intuitive process. I do not create or follow pre-established rules, because every work in progress has its own. It could be called a maieutic method.
We will reflect on the possibility of seeing reality without transforming it, without influencing it and without lying. Therefore, as a consequence, we will also talk about ethics in reportage, honesty and moral issues of post-production. But also the evolution of the reportage in the history of the image, of the journalistic and documentary investigation, of its nuances, transformations and languages. We will reflect on how the technical and intellectual choices may transform languages and the way of telling the stories of life.
Theoretical Module
• The visual literacy
• What do I want to see? What do I want to know?
• Myself, the object of the gaze, the other myself
• Telling what we do not see
• The photograph fulfils the commandment of memory
• Photography as a point of contact: saved by not being
• Clues, traces and signs
• Solitary work: humble and slow in order to see
• The instinct to follow the images: fragility and emotion
• The vice (transgression) of imagination
• The anxiety of being a witness
• The breath of the spell
• In the search for beauty is the energy of hope
• Seeing the light through the reflection
• The sharp shadows and the reconstruction of the dream
• Long exposures make shadows dissolve; they go away on their own
• The compensation between the speed of the flows and instantaneity
• Finding again the divine
• The light that animates the folds of life
• The signs of the world
• The humanity of the landscapes
• Along the perspective of the crowd
• Parallel geographies
• The uncertain landscape
• Stories of the border
• Discover the city that does not exist
• Finding the places of childhood
• Search the landscapes of the soul
• The strength of the resistance to the new
• Displacements – crossings – becoming
• The elements of displacement
• Following the chants
• Weak voices
• The presence of a photographer: a difficulty and a risk
• Gaining acceptance
• Listening makes you zero yourself into the other
• Doors and open houses: what is behind it, what is happening inside
• Share intimacy
• Fear of judgment
• Reveal the dimension of the dialogue
• The identification of similarities between bodies, movements, thoughts, beliefs
• The dance of gestures
More workshop details
- It is necessary to bring one’s own work: a story in 12 or 20 images
- It is possible to bring wider material on the same theme (maximum 70 photos)
- You are asked to carefully reflect on the sequence of your story. To view your work you need:
- analogue prints for those able to carry them (eg: 36cm long side) – or – in digital format (jpg quality 12, eg resolution 250 pixels / inch, long side maximum 2000 pixels, maximum 7 MB). The material can be brought into a USB stick.
- An individual exit is planned for photographing. Please bring your camera and your computer to edit the material made during the workshop.
Where: Trieste @ International Cultural Association “La Cordata”
Via Gatteri, 36 – 34129 – Trieste (Italy)
Google link: https://goo.gl/maps/2DhDxzyd5FE2
When: October, 13 – 14, 2018
[sat.: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM (lunch break)]
[sun.: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (lunch break)]
COSTS, RESERVATIONS AND OTHER INFORMATION
direct contact with Monika Bulaj via her e-mail address: monikabulaj@gmail.com
back to italian parent page
Go to Monika Bulaj website: https://www.monikabulaj.com/
Go to ws event page (italian language): https://www.lacordata.eu/events/event/bulaj-la-scrittura-creativa/