Ashkal Alwan is happy to host a week-long photography workshop with Laurence LeBlanc at Home Workspace from the 14th May to 18th May 2012. We are welcoming applications from both professional and amateur photographers. There will be a selection process and successful applicants will be invited to participate in an intensive workshop that will focus on the conceptual framework of a photographer rather than the technical aspects of photography.



Description:

With practical exercises exploring the different stages of a personal research, Laurence Leblanc will push participants to discover their inner sensitivity: a sensitivity with strength, with fragility; one that can be intensified by the image or on the contrary rejected by it.



The goal is to go beyond the surface of things, to find personal obsession, to confront our choices, our wishes, our vision with what is around us… At the end to understand our own approach to looking at human beings, always searching for sense and coherence.



This kind of approach demands total commitment: during the photo sessions, by letting oneself be permeated by the setting and the people and stubbornly searching for the right point of view and the right texture; and during the editing phase, by confronting the images with each other, the subject and other ways of seeing in order to create a ‘story’.



Day by day they will build up an approach that is sensitive, people-oriented and constantly in search of meaning and sensation.



Workshop Content:

-Presentation of the coordinators’ own work.

-Presentation of participants’ previous work.

-Individual interviews and definition of personal projects.

-Daily photo sessions in different contexts.

-Critical analysis of the photographs taken.

-Examination of each participant’s photographic world.

-Consideration of possible outlets.