“In terms of art, the only real answer that I know of is to do it, If you don’t do it, you don’t know what might happen.â€
—Harry Callahan
BLINDSPOTTERS?
With five decades of combined experience, Blindspotters is a workshop designed to assist photographers in shaping their own vision and not to impose any specific vision or dogma upon their work. This process includes the Socratic method of questions, answers, explanations and probing into the thought process of each photographer’s vision so as to assist them to find the way forward to achieve their goal.
This workshop is to empower photographers to engage in problem solving, and to sharpen their instincts so as to be able to trust themselves in reading various situational clues in coming up with solutions to any given issue they may face during the making of their project.
WHAT WILLÂ BLINDSPOTTERS DO FOR YOU:
First and foremost, Blindspotters will help photographers in their critical thinking, conflict resolution, problem solving, and mentoring which will be an ongoing process that will outlive the workshop. As Blindspotters alum, you will always have the opportunity to communicate directly with Steven or Nima and ask questions and ask for guidance. Blindspotters wants to build relationships with talented photographers and be there when they succeed in their goals.
During the workshop,
Blindspotters will also assist you to:
-Â Facilitate contact with subjects
-Â Answer questions as they come up during the day-to-day workshop
-Â Assist photographers to find their own path in making of their project
-Â Checking on photographers (if it does not interrupt their work) during their daily photo shoots
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Photographers attending the workshop choose from a list of subject matters upon which to build their photographic project. The subject matters follows:
Social life
- Barbershops
- Coffee shops
- Dress shops
- Churches
- Religious activities (e.g., bible studies)
- Food distribution
- Elderly issues
- Handicap issues
- Prison
- Sunday Schools
Music life
- Blues singers
- Musicians
- Ground Zero
- Juke joints (if any) http://www.jukejointfestival.com/venues.php
- Other music venues
Political life
- Bill Luckett (Previous mayor)
- Chuck Epsy: New Mayor
- Other politicians (Mayor election runner-up)
- Racial issues = what role they played in the last mayoral election
- Issues relating to the past race conflicts and reconciliations
- Leaders in the Chamber of Commerce
- School principal
- Union leaders if any
NIGHTLY ACTIVITIES
•Food preparation
•Photo discussions aside from the daily photo activities
•Discussions about the projects and where each person
•Assisting in editing (even if photographers do their own editing first, when we edit their photos we should ask to see all of their photos—it will help us get to know their process and how we can help them to improve it—e.g., working a situation longer; taking more or less photos; technical issues; focusing on aspects of the story; intimacy with subject; different shots—wide, detail, verticals, etc.)
•Assisting in the shape and course of the projects
•Discussions about documentary work and ideas about how to achieve the best visual story
•Assisting in shaping the written story which accompany the photo story (if any)•Presentations and group discussion of individual photographer’s work •General sequencing session. Participants will sequence his/her work at the end
•General discussion about the path forward regarding any given project by the participants•General photography business discussion
