The Personal Project July 23, 2011

The impulse to respond to our world with our cameras is as old as photography itself – everything about who we are steers us toward projects that engage us. Are you driven to begin such a project but don't quite know how to start? Have you begun a series but need some guidance in bringing your work to completion? Do you need some inspiration?

This workshop is for students at all stages of a photographic project – for those with germinating ideas but need help conceptualizing a starting point, to those who have projects underway and need some direction, to those at the end of a project who need help editing to create a narrative within.

Over two days you will be encouraged to share your ideas and bodies of work, and receive the push you need to take that work to the next level. Together we will emphasize concepts of visual storytelling, deep seeing, and understanding the nuts and bolts of how to transfer your passions into a resonant body of photographs. Questions we will consider: How do we think critically about our ideas before the photography takes place? How do we do the legwork to get into places where relevant pictures may happen? How do we connect with the world while we are working, ready for surprises and magic to happen? And how do we look critically at the photographs we're making, identify what's succeeding and what isn't, and move on to the next steps in creating our narrative?

In this intimate setting, we will look at the work of photographers responding to their worlds, both historically and in contemporary practice. As a photographer who is deeply imbedded in her community, Mary Beth will also share her own work creating long-term projects on the ideas and issues that she's passionate about.

Official Website: http://www.projectbasho.org/workshops/2011summer/photography-project-workshop.html