Come Rain Come Shine

This weekend I taught a photo workshop in Bergen, Norway. Despite not having the best of weathers, I was impressed with the participants’ efforts. They were out early in the morning, shooting, shooting and relentlessly defying the weather.

What I enjoyed even more was their willingness to accept the challenges I forced upon them. They took it straight. For some it was losing control and become more reckless, for some it was approaching people on the street, for some it was not shooting sharp images, and for everybody it was to keep shooting long after they felt they had overly and too long disrupted whomever they stopped on the street.

It’s a natural instinct, to capture one, two or maybe even three photos of someone on the street and then let go. But most likely that will not be enough to produce captivating images and break the first inhibition and the subjecting wanting to play up to the photographer. On the street, the photographer has to keep going, keep shooting, 20, 50 maybe 100 photos of a situation. I know, it’s not easy, you feel you step over what is acceptable behaviour, but those who try often find out surprisingly how willing people actually are. As the participants of the workshop found out.

The participants not only defied the weather and the challenges, but also brought back some excellent images. At a later stage, I will display some of their work here. For now let me just inform that I am teaching another weekend photo workshop in Seattle from September 6th to 9th. If you may be interested, you’ll find more information about the workshop “The Visual Language” here.

As of tomorrow I will take off on a two weeks holiday in Ireland. I will be away from the blog sphere during the holiday. But I will be back in the end of June. Take care friends.

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Last Week’s Instagram

Once a week—or every so often—I will display one of my photos captured and/or processed with Instagram over the last week. It’s a way for me to show photography that usually is quite different from my regular work. The pictures are displayed without any comments, hoping they will stand on their own. But I still very much appreciate any comments you may have.

Streets of Rome

Rome is a fascinating city. Just thinking about its thousands of years of history can spellbound any person. The history is evident all over the city, in ruins, in incomparable buildings all from the earliest periods up until today, and not the least in the Roman culture and attitude.

The latter was what I was trying to capture during the photo workshop lead by the Swedish photographer Martin Bogren, I attended two weeks ago. I roamed the streets away from where the tourists the usual ramble. Photographing regular Romans of today—in their many shapes and appearances. It was actually so pleasant to not have to visit any of the big attractions, but rather experience the “real” Rome.

Here are a few last images I will post from my very rewarding trip to Rome.

Last Week’s Instagram

Once a week—or every so often—I will display one of my photos captured and/or processed with Instagram over the last week. It’s a way for me to show photography that usually is quite different from my regular work. The pictures are displayed without any comments, hoping they will stand on their own. But I still very much appreciate any comments you may have.

A Roman Stance

Last week I attended maybe one of the best workshops ever. It was taught by the Swedish photographer Martin Bogren and took place in Rome. Five days of intense, demanding and tough photographing and teaching. We were pushed beyond our comfort zones and felt both enormously encouraged and hard-pressed. It’s the kind of workshop style I like, whether I am teaching myself or attending one. It’s all about complete focus on photography. If we were not out shooting on the streets of Rome, then we would either have sessions of picture critique, Bogren showing us his own masterly work or processing photos ourselves for the next critique session. No time for anything else, hardly for sleep.

Martin Bogren is not only an excellent photographer of world class, but he is also seeing his students, their needs and pushing them in a direction they need to go in order for them to develop their photography. He is generous and insightful, as well as tough when needed and encouraging when that is needed. He has a quite and soft way of approaching students’ work as his own photography, but also resilient and strong beneath it all.

I came back from Rome with the hard disk loaded with photos. Plenty of meagre results—whish is always to be expected when shooting on the street, but quite a few that are pretty good. Martin Bogren was able to open up new aspects of my photography and he has given me a new direction. Here are a few images from the Roman workshop. I’ll let them stand on their own.

Photo Workshop in Bolivia

I have written about it before. But I would like to once again mention that my colleague Sven Creutzmann and I are planning an extra ordinary photo workshop in Bolivia. It will be all about photography—of course—and travelling in a fascinating country with an amazing landscape—and its beautiful people. And again we are following the footsteps of Che Guevara and his last days in Bolovia before he was captured and killed by the Bolivian army. We will meet people who met with Che Guevara and took care of him during those last days.

Although, following his footsteps will only be a red thread through our own photographic journey where the pictures by the participants will be the focus on an everyday basis. If you would like to join, Sven and I will guide you to a better understanding of your photographic vision, we will push you to express it as best you can in your shooting and we will teach you how to approach the photographic process with a creative and personal touch. This workshop is directed to photographers of all levels, beginners to advanced professionals. In other words: Whoever loves photography! In this workshop you will improve your photographic skills; you will learn to better use your camera and improve your understanding of light. The main focus will be on the picture, not on the technical part of the photographic process.

This workshop will take place from September 23rd to October 2nd 2019 and we start our photographic journey from Santa Cruz, the capital of the eastern province of Bolivia and the business centre of the country. From there we will travel up into the lower mountains (up to 3000 meters above sea level) where Che Guevara tried to impose his revolution in Bolivia more than 40 years ago. If you think experiencing—and photographing—this beautiful part of the world with two very experienced photographer sounds like a dream come true, maybe it’s time to plan to join the workshop in the autumn coming up.

There are still space if you ware interested in participating.
For more info, please click on the link

Engaged and Detached at the Same Time

As creative individuals we all—more or less—indentify ourselves with the work we generate. We view the work—rightly—as an extension of ourselves. Yet it’s important to understand that we cannot become the work. The work—already from the beginning of its creation—sets out on a “life” of its own. It’s not us any more, if nothing else because everybody else will not see the work as the same as us. But more importantly, if we become too attached to our work, we will not be able to make it come to its full blossom. In many ways it may be compared to the having a child. Our children are not ours and they are certainly not us, although they are created by us.

I have previously written about the need for passion in the creative process. But it’s important to bear in mind that it’s not the passion for the final product I have in mind, but passion for the process—and passion for whatever it is that we want to express. Thus, when it comes to the work itself, we must maintain a critical distance, and be capable of a more objective relationship with the content of our efforts.

This detachment is a form of freedom: We enter into a real dialogue with our materials and ideas, rather than a fragile and trembling co-dependency with the natural results of our efforts. The work comes from us, or through us; it’s not of us. This is an important distinction to recognize if we hope to continue on the creative path. We wish to attune ourselves to the process, engage our energies as deeply as possible, and allow the work to emerge as the by-product, the child, of a mature relationship between ourselves and our materials. It is thus fair to say that we need to be both engaged and detached at the same time during the creative process.

On a different note: Unfortunately I have not been able to catch up with all comments on my last post, and neither been able to visit any other blogs the last week. It’s just been to busy, but I promise I will get back to you all.

When Inner and Outer World Become One

Artists and creative people frequently talk about the experience of losing themselves in the work at hand, being fully in tune with the process, with the heighten sense of being completely focused, being in flow—often emerging hours later as if having been in a trance. I know this from myself, and I also know that whenever I emerge from such a trance like state of mind after having worked hard during a photo session, I have been able to capture some great images. I can’t say which picture is going to stand out at the point of capture—as some photographers immediately are able to—but I know that within the batch of photos from the shoot there is bound to be some goods one. This trance like state of mind, in flow, when I lose myself, is for me the ultimate level of creativity, when everything can happen and I am not bound by my own preconceived ideas or thoughts.

I often compare this with being in a tunnel, where all kinds of unpredictable things can happen. I have now idea what happens in there before I finally emerge onto the other side of the tunnel. I wrote about this in the post “Tunnel Vision” quite some time ago. And it does resemble some of the ideas I wrote about the contemplative approach to photography in the post “Different Perspective” not long ago, in which I stated that contemplative photography in essence is about how to fully connect with the visual richness of our ordinary, daily experience.

There is a duality to this process. It’s two worlds coming together – the outside world and our inner world. We perceive and react to what we see, and then bring our inner self and spirit into the equation, almost as if in a dialectic process. In this very concentrated process we focus deeply on a single task, and at the same time something opens, deepens and widens. We are fully absorbed and present to the activity and the moment, to the exclusion of other elements and influences in our lives. But we are also equally attentive to ourselves; our responses, our impulses, and our creative interaction with the medium.

The late and great photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson has aptly described photographic seeing as having one eye turned outward and one eye turned inward. When the two images converge, that’s the moment for capturing the photograph. In his acclaimed book “The Decisive Moment” he writes: I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us, but which can also be affected by us. A balance must be established between the two worlds – the one inside of us and the one outside of us. As a result of a constant reciprocal process, both these worlds come to form a single one. And it is this world that we must communicate.

Last Week’s Instagram

Once a week—or every so often—I will display one of my photos captured and/or processed with Instagram over the last week. It’s a way for me to show photography that usually is quite different from my regular work. The pictures are displayed without any comments, hoping they will stand on their own. But I still very much appreciate any comments you may have.

Your Own path

When you first pick up a camera, you start down on a creative path. How far you go—or even how far you want to go—is all up to you. There is no right or wrong. There is no saying how far you should go. And there is certainly no need to feel you have to keep developing your photographic skills or your photographic vision.

If all you want is to play with your camera, if you just want to capture moments in your life, to keep as memories, without any photographic ambitions; do it! Have fun—that is the whole point, anyway. Too many “serious” photographers forget the fun part. They lose the playfulness that is such an important part of the creative endeavour, what probably brought them into photography in the first place.

This path you have undertaken—whichever direction it takes you—is all yours. In many ways, all you need is walk the walk, photograph what photographs you capture, and immerse yourself in the process. Gain confidence as you head down the path; learn to create by creating, become skilled as a photographer by photographing. If you trust the process, if you trust yourself and your inherent creativity—which we all have in us—in time you will master what needs to be mastered. The path will open up for you, if you become susceptible to it.

All this is easier said than done, though, and a guiding hand may more often than not be of great help. It is like undertaking a spiritual journey. You can become spiritually enlightened by work of your own mind, but a master by your side may help you not lose track of the path.

So it is with photography. Someone to guide your development can speed up the progress. I see it in all the workshops I teach, how much each participants grow through the week or whatever length of a workshop. And I know it myself from attending many a workshop. As a matter of fact, now in May I will once more enrol in a workshop, this time in Rome. Very exciting.

Maybe a photo workshop would be worth considering for you, too? Maybe it’s time to develop your photography. I would be happy to se you onboard one of my workshop that I teach this year. See further down for workshops I will be teaching.

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I have a task for you. Would you be willing to answer some questions for me? I am doing a little survey to tailor new workshops to your needs. It could be beneficial for you and—and of course for me, too. The survey will only take a few minutes.

To the survey   Get my e-book 10 Great Tips for free.

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Workshops in 2019:

Next year I am going to teach no less than four workshops. They will vary from weekend long workshops to a tour stretching almost a fortnight. There should be a workshop for most aspiration.
 
“Street Photography in Cuba” is a workshop I do together with my friend and colleague Sven Creutzmann. It’s our most popular photo workshop and offers a great opportunity to experience the colours, the contradictions, the rhythm and the passion of this country unlike any other. “Street Photography in Cuba” takes place from May 4th to 11th 2019.
 
“The Personal Expression” is a weekend workshop in Bergen, Norway. It’s an intimate and personal photo workshop, in which you will get a chance to work on and develop your personal expression as a photographer. “The Personal Expression” takes place from June 7th to 9th, 2019.
 
“The Visual Language” is an extended weekend workshop in Seattle, USA. In this workshop I will focus on the visual language—as the title indicates—and you will get a chance to develop your skills in visually telling stories with your photography. “The Visual Language” takes place from September 6th to 9th 2019.

“On the Tracks of Che Guevara” is maybe the workshop I am most excited about being able to re-launch. It takes place in the eastern mountain area of Bolivia and we will follow the tracks of the last days of Che Guevara before he was killed in these mountains. This is another workshop I do together with Sven Creutzmann and one we haven’t offer since 2013. “On the Tracks of Che Guevara” takes place from September 23th to October 2nd 2019.
 
<font color="#990000"Please follow the links for more info about each of the workshops.
Or shoot me an email (by answering this one) and I will send you more information.