The Masterclass
Successful candidates will spend the week with both photographers developing visual language, technical and conceptual skills and individual photographic identity. Through an intensive week of progressive photographic shooting, the participants will produce an individual project under the same structure as professional assignments; shooting alone as well as under the guidance of the Magnum photographers.
The participants will also benefit from using Wheatley’s East London studio, which will be the base for daily reviews, group critiques, mentoring, editing sessions and for printing their images for a final exhibition. A midweek lecture by US based Magnum Photographer, Eli Reed, will provide inspiration and give the participants the opportunity to meet industry professionals at the Magnum Print Room, London.
The images produced over the week will constitute an individual body of work and also be integrated into a group project, subject to feedback from all members of the Workshop. The process of editing and criticising the work produced will be a principal part of the learning process and conducted on a daily basis by the Magnum photographers and all participants.
Why East London?
The forthcoming 2012 Olympic Games has given huge impetus to the regeneration of East London. Stratford, a once neglected district, will be the location for the Olympic Stadium and the focal point of the games. But huge challenges remain in an area that is still seriously deprived, housing significant immigrant communities from Bangladesh, Somalia, Eastern Europe and many other countries, as well as a traditional white working class that has often found it difficult to deal with the new realities. The workshop – entitled ‘The New East End’ – hopes to address, in imaginative ways, some of the complexities arising from the rapid and profound transformation that this part of London has been and is currently undergoing.
Requirements:
The workshop is aimed at advanced photographers, both amateur and professional, who will be selected on the strength of portfolios submitted online to Steele-Perkins and Wheatley. The week will culminate in the production of a digitally printed group exhibition at the Calumet Gallery in Euston.