Platte City, prepárate.
En menos de dos semanas, 43 fotógrafos de todos los rincones de los EE. UU. y 13 países extranjeros se reunirán en Platte City para el 66º Taller anual de fotografía de Missouri.
This year’s workshop runs from Sept. 21-27.
Los preparativos finales están a cargo de un comité de bienvenida organizado por el alcalde de Platte City, Frank Offutt.
Una cena de bienvenida abierta al público recibirá a los fotógrafos y docenas de empleados de MU el domingo 21 de septiembre en un campo de práctica en el campus R-3 del condado de Platte. El campo de práctica está ubicado a lo largo de la autopista. 92, frente a QuikTrip.
La cena de bienvenida será de 5 a 7 pm Está abierta al público e incluirá perros calientes gratis.
Las actividades del taller, en las que los fotógrafos elegirán un tema local y pasarán la semana fotografiando ese tema, se llevarán a cabo de lunes a viernes, del 22 al 26 de septiembre, y el grupo tendrá su base en el Centro Cívico de Platte City.
El sábado 27 de septiembre se llevará a cabo una exhibición pública de las exhibiciones fotográficas en Platte City Middle School de 10 a 2. Se invita al público a venir a ver las exhibiciones de unas 400 fotografías realizadas durante la semana.
Offutt primero persiguió la idea de atraer el Taller de fotografía de MU a Platte City por sugerencia de Bill Hankins, un fotoperiodista jubilado de The Landmark. Hankins participó anteriormente en el taller y es miembro del Salón de la Fama del Fotoperiodismo de la Asociación de la Prensa de Missouri.
In a news release, Jim Curley, co-director of the MU Photo Workshop, said that for two-thirds of a century MPW has focused on teaching the fundamentals of researching, shooting, and editing photo stories while emphasizing ethical practices. The faculty–past and present– include some of the leading photojournalists, editors, and educators in the field. They encourage, and demand participants to follow founder Cliff Edom’s edict, to “show truth with a camera” throughout the week.
Is this enough of an attraction to bring people across the country and half way around the globe? Victor Blue, an alumnus of MPW.57 in 2005, wrote in a letter of support for one of this year’s applicants: “Spending time learning storytelling in the environment of the Missouri Photo Workshop was one of the defining experiences of my life.” Now successful as a photographer freelancing for many clients, including the New York Times, Victor says he’s been evangelizing for the workshop ever since, telling photographers he meets, “to head there and learn like I did. I use the framework I learned there every single day I shoot. It’s never left me.”
In Curley’s news release, he details some of this year’s participants. Here’s what a few of this year’s 43 photographers have to say about why they’re traveling to Platte City.
Peter Mather is traveling from Whitehorse, in Canada’s Yukon Territory. His photos are sometimes published in the Whitehorse newspaper and he’s also contributed work to both Canadian Geographic and National Geographic magazines. In 2013 he was accepted as a member of the International League of Conservation Photographers. Between assignments he’s working on a long-term project on the Gwich’in aboriginal people and their cultural and physical dependence on the Porcupine Caribou Herd in northern Canada and Alaska. One of the photographs shows a clash of cultures as a Gwich’in youth documents the harvest of a recent caribou hunt with an iPad while boating back to his village in northern Canada.
He has hopes this workshop “will be instrumental in defining and producing” his story on the Gwich’in people. Mather has heard an earful about the workshop from friends and colleagues, “and they all say the same thing. ‘Hardest thing I’ve ever done,’ and, ‘you’ve got to do it. You will be so challenged and you’ll learn so much.’”
Nacida y criada en Italia, Federica Armstrong trabajó en una variedad de otros países antes de establecerse en el norte de California. Armstrong se describe a sí misma como “una fotógrafa documental centrada en cuestiones de igualdad social, medio ambiente y sostenibilidad”. Al trabajar principalmente con organizaciones sin fines de lucro en el Área de la Bahía, crea imágenes para sus sitios web, redes sociales e informes anuales. Su lista de clientes incluye Hábitat para la Humanidad, UNICEF y el Centro de Salud Familiar Ravenswood de East Palo Alto.
“I use my photography to document untold stories,” Armstrong says. And she seems to understand what MPW is all about when she says, ”In my experience, much of the work we do as photographers has little to do with our cameras but in how we approach our subjects and how capable we are in connecting with individuals to bring our the essence of a story.” In attending MPW she hopes to ”gain tremendous insight in how to look at stories, elaborate the content, and focus on the elements that distinguish great storytelling from ordinary photography.” Benjamin Petit earned his Masters degree in photography and imagery engineering in 2010 from the Ecole Nationale Superieure Louis-Lumiere in Paris before heading to study in New York on a Fulbright Scholarship. He spent a year refining his craft there at the International Center of Photography studying documentary photography and photojournalism. Since then he has gone on to do freelance work for the New York Times while producing long-term stories in Morocco, Mexico, Colombia and Yemen. He’s making his way to Platte City because he feels “MPW is a space where award-winning mentors are able to share their experience and vision with the participants.” He realizes how important constructive criticism can be in developing a personal vision and refining photographic style and says “I wish to participate in the Missouri Photo Workshop in order to take my practice to a new level.”
Alexandra Demenkova will make the trek from Russia to attend the workshop. She studied in the foreign languages department of the State Pedagogical University in St. Petersburg before concentrating on photography in 2000. Since then she’s done master classes in Amsterdam, Denmark, St. Petersburg and New York. “Although I asked my parents to buy me a camera at the age of nine,” she says, “I only got my first camera at the age of 19.” Since then she’s used it a lot to document life in rural areas of Russia. “When I photograph I feel much better than when I don’t. It’s as if I start to feel the firm ground under my feet, or I forget that it is there at all.” In the end she feels the philosophy of the Missouri Photo Workshop is very much in line with her own philosophy as a photographer. “Photographing small town America is something that inspires and appeals to me a lot.”
Estos cuatro fotógrafos tipifican los objetivos de los 43 que viajarán a Platte City a finales de este mes. Todos son apasionados por la fotografía y todos quieren aprender a ser mejores narradores visuales.
Dado que muchos de estos participantes viajarán grandes distancias a un gran costo, los organizadores del taller esperan que algunos residentes de Platte City estén dispuestos a considerar hospedar a uno de los participantes durante la semana y/o prestar una bicicleta para la semana. Sería muy apreciado, especialmente para algunos de los participantes internacionales. Cualquiera que desee ayudar en cualquiera de estas dos áreas puede llamar o enviar un correo electrónico al codirector Jim Curley al (573) 673-5134 o curleyj@missouri.edu David Rees al (573) 289-3783 o reesd@missouri.edu.