It was with some excitement then that I spent an enjoyable long April weekend in the city with the aforementioned Richard Kalvar on a Magnum Street Photography workshop a couple of weeks ago.

Street Photography with Richard Kalvar

As with all such events, there is the shy, trepidatious, initiation – the tentative sizing-up of your class-mates, and the cautious, and occasionally earnest, building of acquaintances and friendships. All the while doing all one can to not embarrass oneself by saying something so irrevocably daft. Though a few close calls, I may just have managed it without any major faux-pas. My fellow attendees spanned the spectrum from dedicated street photographers to those taking their first steps and was a pleasant, collegiate group that I hope, for the most part, stays in touch – but you know how these things are.

Each day was split into a morning review and an afternoon’s shooting out on the streets of Paris. Portfolios provided in the weeks before the workshop were reviewed by Richard Kalvar and the class on the first morning. It was fascinating to see what others chose as their best work, compared to the choices I myself had made. It was in parts entertaining and thought-provoking to hear Richard’s thoughts on the photographs and to see which he preferred and which he didn’t – some of which were certainly surprising. Afterwards, the Place de l’Opéra was used as a hub for an afternoon of photography and a meeting place should we want to discuss with Richard and our facilitators – Coline and Sofia. Days 2 and 3 followed a similar pattern though on the third and last day, we flipped the schedule shooting in the morning to allow for review in the afternoon.

“the devil peeking over my shoulder”

Though not a surprise, I loved the experience and I had an enjoyable, enlightening, and at moments, fruitful time. That unwelcome guest, the devil peeking over my shoulder, my impostor syndrome and its related anxieties paid me an inopportune visit on our second day, though, which didn’t help. My portfolio (the ‘Le Retour’ exhibition plus a few) had originally been very well received, however, on Sunday’s review of Saturday’s photos I focused too strongly, to the cost of all else, on an entirely fair moment of criticism on a naive technical decision made on one photo. It seems rather than hear the positive feedback given to several others, I found myself in a full-on spiral of self-doubt for the Sunday afternoon. The short time spent in Paris, and the pressure of the workshop format, igniting a small panic that the shots just weren’t coming.

An epiphany realised a touch too late, and in no small part as a result of the quiet encouragement from Magnum’s facilitator Coline, was that I shouldn’t push myself to deliver gold each day. It’s madness to think that is possible. Instead, of course, bringing photographs that Richard (or another ‘master’) can provide feedback and guidance on, is the real learning experience. If I could change anything from my overall delightful adventure of the weekend, it would be to have better understood this from the start.

Time Well Spent

Collected together though, my output, the advice and instruction, and finally the feedback from the class and from Richard, was all resoundingly positive and there really was no need for my anxiety-induced dip mid-way through. The third and final day was the one I enjoyed most. Not only did we spend time reviewing the group’s photos from the Sunday afternoon and Monday morning but also spent time discussing, chatting, and having lunch together. A particular highlight of Monday was taking a journey through Richard’s contact sheet to see the process of an initial idea taking root and developing until the final shot.

Leaving Magnum’s gallery and office for that final time, I looked back over my shoulder to the door hidden off the street and felt that, circumstances permitting, this would not be my last Magnum workshop in Paris. I walked away sad to be leaving, and determined to return. Thanks to Coline, Sofia, Richard, and my other classmates for making the weekend such an enjoyable and fruitful one.

The post A Weekend at Magnum with Richard Kalvar appeared first on Neil Milton Photography.

As January dripped into February, I signed up to both a Street Photography masterclass with Magnum and Richard Kalvar, and another in London with Leica and Bruce Gilden. Kalvar is in a couple of weeks, Gilden in June. With hope and intention of collaborating with NGOs in the future, I enrolled also on “Working with NGOs”, an instalment of Magnum’s online Professional Practice series.

Working with NGOs

In the days leading to the Working with NGOs weekend I found myself a little anxious. Having spent a year building myself back as a photographer, I certainly don’t consider it a hobby or myself an amateur. Nevertheless, I don’t earn even close to 100% of my income with photography so can’t at the same time consider myself a professional. Will I be the least experienced of all the attendees? Would I be out of place? In previous in-person outings I may well have been, but it seems that this online iteration had the coincidental effect of bringing together a diverse list of attendees. We were all photographers, of course, but all with widely different experiences and points of view. That imposter’s syndrome was very quickly shed.

Friday

Friday was a day of lectures and workshops with the group. We were first introduced to Sudhanshu Malhotra from Greenpeace who gave us a brief history of the organisation and some indication of how they work with photographers.

Later, Jess Crombie, a senior lecturer on documentary image making and ethics at London College of Communication (UAL) and a consultant working with NGOs including Save the Children, talked to us on subjects such as representation, ethics, and consent. This was a highlight of the weekend. For someone who considers himself aware of his biases, I discovered, nevertheless, I had a lot to learn.

Finally, in the afternoon, Bruno de Cock of Medicines Sans Frontières talked about the organisation’s historical work with photographers, and the direction such collaboration is now taking. I left Friday with notes-aplenty and a lot to think about both in terms of reassessing how I consider some things, and how I might develop more participatory projects in the future.

The weekend

Both Saturday and Sunday unfolded differently. Portfolio reviews occurred each day. On Saturday I met with Bruno, and on Sunday with Steph Bailey of Save The Children. I found the review with Steph to be fascinating and we had a really insightful conversation that left me feeling inspired. I didn’t have the same vibe with Bruno, but to be fair, I feel that was down to my nervous over-explanation and relentless, loquacious, filling of the space. The poor bloke hardly got himself a word in.

Saturday was punctuated with a 90 minute lecture by Magnum photographer Zied Ben Romdhane; Sunday with the same by current Magnum president, Olivia Arthur. Both were captivating and offered such insight into their projects and process. I particularly enjoyed Arthur recounting stories from her Jeddah Diaries project, particularly how she overcame the hurdle of not showing her subjects’ faces.

Throughout Saturday and Sunday, though as enjoyable and interesting as all this was, I found my favourite part to be the open zoom session through the day as attendees came and went, in and out, of the portfolio review break-out rooms. This was a place we could hang out, chat, and share stories and ideas. Later in the day, there was also the “Magnum Cafe” – a slightly more organised version of the same. In lieu of a lobby or bar we could hang out in, or post-conference drinks, the “Cafe” was a great chance to make friends, acquaintances, and contacts that one might hope will last after the event. As with all such events there were some extroverted souls, and some more quiet, reflective people – and there were several I hope I’ll keep in touch with for some time.

Final Thoughts

All in all, without going into great detail here, this was a great start to my year of attending such events, workshops, masterclasses, etc. Magnum Professional Practice was informative, thought-provoking, encouraging, inspiring, energising, and motivating – it was worth the 3 days to set aside to participate. I look forward to the next in the professional practices series and budget-permitting, I can certainly see myself attending.

Thank you to Magnum, the speakers, and to Sonia Jeunet and Bayryam Bayryamali for facilitating.

The post Magnum Professional Practice appeared first on Neil Milton Photography.