The next masterclass is planned to start on 15 September 2024.

 

This information page contains details from our website section presenting the photography masterclass. If you should have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us directly for clarification. In addition, a free 30-minute one-to-one session is available.

 

• This course integrates one-to-one bespoke sessions and workshop stages into a semi-structured 12-weeks program. It promotes photography as an international language that enables individuals to communicate effectively their stories, memories and feelings.
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• This course unites a group to collaborate as a team towards a commune goal: communicate through the visual language of photography.
• Participants are encouraged to experiment, communicate, learn new skills and develop their own photography voice.
• We will get ready to photography sessions, create a portfolio, ask questions, explore and work with curiosity.
• You are encouraged to experiment, try, fail and learn, question, discover and repeat.
• You will have the opportunity to strengthen your skills, collaborate as a team, develop your own project, learn from others and reference other works.
• Some participants may excel in understanding and executing projects, others may be better at technical aspects, others may be good at design and preparation or planning and time-management.
• Ultimately, your photographs with personal statements/stories, will be ready for sharing and presentation.
• This masterclass of working together with photography is suitable for everyone at any level: individuals or small groups, beginner or advanced, undergraduates and postgraduates.

 

A free 30-minute one-to-one introduction session is available. Please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss your request. 

This Photography Masterclass is designed and run by Dr Alexandru Modoi.

 

 

PRICE, LOCATION AND 30% DISCOUNT FOR GROUPS

 

This is a semi-structured programme of 12 sessions of two hours each week with groups of 10 participants. For classes of more than 10 participants, we can choose to have three-hour sessions or two or three smaller groups. The purpose is that every participant should benefit from the weekly time allocated to present, ask questions and review.

 

The price is £590 per participant. To reserve your place, you can pay £100 in advance.

You can then pay the remaining difference of £490 before the starting date of the programme to complete your booking.

 

The 30% discount is applied for bookings of more than one participant. The condition is that the participants would be booked at the same course scheduled times and dates.

• A group of more than 10 participants should be discussed in particular because the group may need to be divided, with sessions allocated accordingly. 
• For companies organising team building, schools or universities, it should be discussed in particular because the location and opening hours may need to be taken into account.

 

There is a no refunds policy. See the terms and conditions, price and payment sections.

 

Where: face to face in Chester or online

The sessions can be conducted at other locations or in mixed forms; details are to be discussed.

 

• 9 of 12 sessions will be online unless everyone can be present on location in Chester City Centre.
• Sessions 5 and 9, for Photo Walks, will be on location in Chester and Cheshire; locations are to be decided.
• Session 12, for individual presentations, will be mixed: in person in Chester City Centre and online for those who cannot attend in person.

 

 

Online via Zoom, WhatsApp or MS Teams

On Location 

Indoors in Chester City Centre. We have access to various locations to accommodate most of your needs, including workshop space areas and specific dedicated studio spaces; museums or other public locations; The Grosvenor Museum, Chester; and the Boathouse by The Water Tower Gardens, Chester.

Outdoors in Chester City Centre, Chester Meadows, Frodsham, Helsby Hill and Moel Famau

At other outdoor locations, e.g. Liverpool, Manchester or Anglesey and other areas (to be decided)

 

Please feel free to use the message text box in the Booking Form to provide additional details.

 

We will discuss the details via the next two following methods:

1. Emailing you from: info@chesterphotofestival.com or events@chesterphotofestival.com and/or
2. Calling you from: 07949 066 406.

After we have established the details, we will send you an invoice to be paid in full in advance. See the details in terms and conditions section.

 

 

PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERCLASS DETAILS

 

Participants will initiate and develop their photography project through group and individual work:

• What’s your story? From the initial sessions, participants will have their own story ready.
• Then, we will identify potential ways to present the stories through photography. Working in groups and receiving feedback, participants should find the guidance to decide which one or two or mixed photography approaches may be better in telling their story, for example, landscape, street, still life, on location, family photographs and many other approaches and disciplinary or interdisciplinary methods.
• By exploring and understanding the role of photography for sharing their stories, participants are expected to develop one of the photography topics linked to photography creative practice explorations and curiosity.

 

With these on hand, we should start building the photography work and its coherence, reasoning and personal meaning.

 

 

EXAMPLES OF PHOTOGRAPHY TOPICS TO BE EXPLORED

 

The Chester Photo Festival encourages its participants to a photography practice answering the 'What' and Why" questions rather that the 'How'. It invites everyone to explore specific topics driven by its personal stories and curiosity.

 

Here are a few examples of potential photography topics to be explored:

• Re-imagining, imagining, familiarity, every day, the unknown, the new;
• The missing object, objects together, misplaced object(s), unseen, staged or banal;
• From afar, at a distance, distance, behind, shadows, colour, shape and time;
• The narrative, the missing or incomplete image, the missing photograph;
• Misrepresentation and misunderstanding;
• The printed photographed as a physical object, the digital photograph as a virtual object;
• Self-exploration. Who am I?
• Artificial intelligence and the mechanical act of taking or reproducing a picture;
• The possibility of creating a photograph without a meaning;
• What if I create a photograph and someone else would write the artist statement?
• What if I create a photograph for an already written statement?

 

 

 

THE PROGRAMME AND SESSIONS

 

In each session:

• We will discuss the weekly subject (1 h).
• Each participant will present the work prepared in show-and-tell fashion. Participants are expected to prepare one to three photographs for each session (1 h).
• When needed, the session would continue for an additional 30 minutes. It is recommended that participants schedule two hours and 30 minutes for each session.
• We will conclude with what we have covered, references and what the next steps are, especially in producing new work – one photograph for the next session and five minutes to present it.
• Participants will receive a handout with the summary of the session and an agenda for the next session.
• A technical specifications page will also be provided to participants, serving especially those who know the rules but want to break the rules (ISO, aperture, white balance, golden rules, rules of thirds and others).

 

Session 1: Introduction to Photo-Entanglement (online)

• References to practices working with stories, personal feelings, myths and folklore.
• Introduction to photo-entanglement Chester Photo Festival’s vision
• Introduction of the participants and their photography interests.
• Understanding that after this session, everyone will start producing new work. Ideally, every participant will have at least one but no more than three photographs to show.
• Understanding that after this session, participants will reflect on their stories.
• Understanding that producing work for the next session and sharing it is important for individual presentation exercises and especially for group project progressions.
• What your story may be that you will want to develop during these 12 weeks.
• Technical skills page 1: 10 types of cameras, digital and analogue.

 

Session 2: Creative Methods, Personal Voice, Meanings to You (online)

• References to methods and practices (disciplinary and interdisciplinary), working with memories, heritage, folklore and voices to be heard.
• Can you create a photograph without a meaning?
• One-photo show-and-tell: one photograph that each participant would produce for this session. Present your story, which should serve as your motivation to work for the next weeks and which will serve as the meaning of your work.
• Technical skills page 2: ISO and aperture; developing a roll film.

 

Session 3: Risk-Taking, Experiment, Courage to Share and Show (online)

• Looking at a project: how it started and how it developed.
• Embracing the idea that predicted outcomes of a project may be different from initial thoughts, often leading to unexpected outcomes.
• Presenting a one-photo show-and-tell
• Technical skills page 3: file types, white balance and grey 18; scanning the roll film.

 

Session 4: Know Your Camera, Choose Your Camera, Control Your Camera (online)

• Reflecting on group intentions, we should look at various types of camera models and photography types such that each group should decide which may work better for its project.
• One-photo show-and-tell.
• There may be situations in which participants will try only one type or multiple types, especially because their story and photography meaning would be expressed better.
• Technical skills page 4: focus and lenses, negatives and photographic paper.

 

Session 5: Photo Walk (1) – Take Pictures (half a day) (Chester City Centre)

• First day out photography session in the Chester City Centre
• We will meet to take pictures, discuss our work, ask questions and find new references.
• Open discussions: present your project and its meaning, your photo-entanglement.
• Have you changed or added new aspects to your story and the photography work? Is there anything you think you need to have for your work to be better developed? What is the group feedback?
• Technical skills page 5: natural light; light meters, pinhole cameras on photographic paper, negatives and digital.

 

Session 6: Further Creative Methods and Risk-Taking after Photo Walk (online)

• Explore the potential new ways to photograph and explore new methods and meanings.
• For our next session, prepare a 200-word personal statement in writing.
• One-photo show-and-tell: in addition, we should reflect on strengths/comfort and aspects that potentially can be improved.
• Technical skills page 6: artificial light; golden rules, rules of thirds; medium and large formats.

 

Session 7: What We Can Possibly Do Differently after the Experiences of Sessions 4, 5 and 6 (online)

• Project developing, looking at references identifying progression in their practices.
• Revising our previous sessions and planning the next steps, knowing that there are a few weeks left to prepare our portfolios for further presentations or exhibitions (1 h)
• No photograph to show: participants will present only their 200-word statement. We will have the chance to look at photographs in our imagination (1 h).
• Technical skills page 7: taking pictures indoors; stereo photography and 3D photography.

 

Session 8: Photography Post-Production (online)

• References and possible direction of developing a project after pictures are produced; do you have another photograph you have rejected? (1 h)
• Revising participants’ projects and personal statements (1 h)
• One-photo show-and-tell as usual, but in addition, show a second photograph that you deemed ‘wrong’ or rejected or that you were reluctant to consider.
• Technical skills page 8: Photoshop basic image workflow; cleaning the scanned images from negatives.

 

Session 9: Photo Walk (2) – Take Pictures (half a day) (Chester, Cheshire, to be decided)

• Our second day out session to take pictures in Frodsham Hill or other locations out of the city.
• Alternatively, we can plan a session to photograph in a museum.
• One-photo show-and-tell: on this occasion, we will work with photographs on the table in a one-hour session at the end of the session, with each participant presenting one physical photograph or, when this is not possible, a digital one.
• Technical skills page 9: Photoshop printing preparations, colour, dpi, size, crop and paper type.

 

Session 10: Select Your Work to Be Presented (online)

• Number of photographs; looking at possible outcomes (1 h)
• What are the next steps as a group presenting the work?
• What are the next steps?
• What are the potential advantages and disadvantages of working as a group or as individuals?
• Present your photo-entanglement, one photograph and its artist statement (1 h).
• Concluding with discussing ‘Why your work is unique and why you are the most suitable to produce it.’
• Technical skills page 10: resolutions, printing photographs, framing and albums.

 

Session 11: Group Work Progress and Establishing How We Should Present the Work (online)

• We will look at relevant references, and there will be a selection of avenues to be considered, such as online blogs, social media groups, printed albums, group exhibitions or other methods, to present the work (1 h).
• Everyone will be invited to submit to a form of presenting their work.
• Deciding how to present the work.
• Portfolios are ready; statements are ready; the work as a group is getting ready to be presented.
• Technical skills page 11: PowerPoint presentations.

 

Session 12: Presenting the Work (half a day) (Chester City Centre)

• As everyone will choose, we should have final works presented and ready for concluding our programme.
• We should plan a ‘presenting the work’ day at the lecture theatre at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester or another suitable venue.
• Those not present may be able to present online.
• Times of 10 to 15 minutes each are allocated, followed by five minutes of questions.
• Guests can be invited to attend.
• The session will be concluded by reviewing our outcomes and the final stage of presenting our work.