Workshops Offered

Kalakar

All workshops can be tailored to meet your needs and can be integrated into new and existing projects. The length of the workshops depend on the depth of subject matter you want covered, your specific goals and other considerations. Below is a list of some sample workshops.

Visual Storytelling / Documentary Photography Workshop

Through lectures and hands-on exercises participants will develop of how to use composition, lighting, time, and space to produce compelling images. Participants will learn the ingredients of a photoessay and go through the process of making images, critiquing, editing, and presenting their own photoessays.

Digital Camera Basics Workshop

Through presentations and exercises participants will develop their understanding of the basic features and settings on digital cameras and when and why to use them.

Community Photography & Advocacy Workshop

The focus is to work with youth/community members to develop basic photo skills, identify a story they want to tell about themselves and/or community, and then produce a photoessay about that story. This can focus on a broader community issue that participants want to raise awareness about and advocate for. For example, it could be part of an ongoing campaign related to social and environment justice, health, school conditions, etc..

Developing Your Photographic Eye Workshop

This involves a series of fun and creative exercises to help individuals develop their vision, composition and sense of timing. Exercises vary from a photographic scavenger hunt to visual representing our dreams to documenting light and color to exploring photographic styles. Cinema and other forms art forms will be used to help participants explore their photographic eye.

Train the Trainer Workshop

This workshop helps teachers, community members, artists, and others interested in teaching photography learn basic photography principles through presentations and hands-on exercises. Curriculum ideas, equipment, mentoring practices, fieldwork, ethics, exhibit and publication production, and other topics are discussed.

Using Photography & Digital Storytelling as a Tool for Social & Environmental Change

Through presentations and examples, participants will learn how photography and digital storytelling have been used to promote social and environmental change and will explore creative applications of these media to help individuals and organizations achieve their missions.

Digital Storytelling Workshop

The goal of the workshop is to help participants design and produce a 2-5 minute digital story or “multimedia movie” using personal narrative, still images, music, and occasionally video.

EXAMPLES OF PAST WORKSHOPS

1-day documentary photography/train-the-trainer workshop with the Seattle-based nonprofit Bridges to Understanding entailed training teachers, youth and amateur photographers in basic photography and mentoring techniques.

2-day train-the-trainer workshop sponsored by the University of Arizona involved training elementary, middle and high school teachers in photography and visual storytelling and exploring ways to integrate photography into their classrooms.

3-day documentary photography workshop teaching photography to young performance artists living in an artist colony in New Delhi, India in collaboration with the nonprofit The Kalakar Trust. The youth learned the basics of composition and light and then documented their lives in the colony. The work was exhibit at the Kalakar Trust’s school and in galleries in Tucson and Boston.

7-day visual storytelling/photography workshop at a middle school in Patagonia, AZ teaching photography basics. Each youth photographed the four elements (fire, water, earth, wind) and their connection to them. Their images were exhibited at their school.

3-month documentary photography residency teaching photography to youth living on the US/MX border. The youth documented what life was like on the border and their photographs were exhibited locally and in Oakland, CA. The project was part of a larger border and immigration rights project.