Stephen Dupont and Jack Picone give an overview of what to expect on our upcoming Sept. 2017 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
© Photograph by Jack Picone
A young deceased woman (above) is carried to the burning ghats by family members at Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu.
View the short video here and be transported to the kaleidoscopic streets of Nepal.
~ Jack Picone
When: 7th – 11 December 2019
On the way to school. Angkor Wat, Siem Reap © Photograph by Jack Picone
Reportage Photography Workshops will hold its next roving workshop in Siem Reap, Cambodia’s fastest-growing town and the jumping-off point for the spectacular temple ruins of Angkor. With a maximum of 12 participants, the 5-day event will provide an opportunity to explore the cultural riches and social dynamism of this exotic corner of the world.
With the world’s most breathtaking ancient ruins on its doorstep, Siem Reap and surrounding areas offer endless photographic possibilities. The town itself has gone from backwater to boomtown in the space of a decade, and traditional Khmer culture coexists with the emergence of a new, hip generation of Cambodians. As well as the vast temple complex of Angkor, nearby are floating villages with traditional stilted houses, the rural beauty of Tonle Sap Lake and the flooded forest of Komplong Phhluk.
Celebrated photographer, artist and filmmaker Stephen Dupont and Documentary photographer Jack Picone will work in tandem to deliver an immersive, insightful and enriching learning experience.
The workshop’s schedule will be engaging, energising and highly rewarding.
An introductory get-together will be held on the evening of the 6th of Dec. before the workshop’s formal start on the morning of 7th of Dec. Like any working documentary photographer, you will be given an assignment brief to interpret as you wish. (The brief will be announced two weeks before the workshop to provide you with time to research possible topics before you arrive.) The aim is to produce a documentary photo-essay with a striking visual narrative to be shown on the final evening of the workshop on Wednesday, Dec. 11th.
Stephen and Jack will hold one to one and group sessions to supervise, critique and edit participants assignments. Intensive dialogue is promoted on topics such as; photographic composition, portraiture, advanced camera techniques, how to research ideas and tell an original story, how to market a body of work and how to hone your personal style.
Early evenings are peppered with lively discussions concerning the aesthetics, philosophy and politics underpinning photography as a medium and with digital projections of both Stephen’s and Jack’s work and other noteworthy photographers.
“Enterprising.” A girl draws to glean donations from tourists en route to temples. Siem Reap, Cambodia © Photograph by Jack Picone
Cost: US$ 1,955. Includes all workshop sessions. Workshop cost does not include travel costs to Siem Reap and accommodation.
Application: The workshop is strictly limited to 12 participants. A $US500 deposit will be required at the time of booking to secure a place.
Registration: To receive further information or to request a registration form, please contact: jack@jackpicone.com
References and Links:
Stephen Dupont
Jack Picone
Photograph by © Jack Picone
Above: A digital screen playing historical video of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand who died on 13 October 2016 after a long illness is reflected in rainwater near Bts Chong Nonsi, Bangkok.
The private sector has canceled all entertainment activities planned for the upcoming Loy Krathong, Christmas and New Year. Though the government has indicated that these activities can be resumed after the ending of the 30-day mourning period on November 14.
Even though a reasonable amount of time has eclipsed since Fujifilm launched [2013] the x/100s I still find myself imbued with it. It is intuitive to use, produces technically superb files and is discreet. Here is a link to a short video of me using it while in Burma or now as it is known Myanmar.
A mother cares for her son during a ferry crossing on the Irrawaddy River Yangon, Burma.
Photograph by © Jack Picone
The Thai village of Samut Chin is drowning in an invading sea, with little stopping the advancing destruction....read more
The local village shop acts as a meeting area for Ban Khun Samut Chin village community © Jack Picone
The local village shop acts as a meeting area for Ban Khun Samut Chin village community © Jack Picone
Bamboo breakwaters that were built several years ago to ‘break’ the power of the surf and protect Ban Khun Samut Chin village have only been partially successful. Submerged trees and mangrove saplings that have drowned in the advancing seawater are clearly visible. © Jack Picone
Submerged telegraph poles tapering off into the distance. These poles act as visual markers for where Ban Khun Samut Chin village was located before it was claimed by the sea. © Jack Picone
Fishing and shrimp farming are the mainstays and principal sources of activity and income for Khun Samut Chin village. Even small rises in sea level throws out the delicate environmental balance of shrimp farming. © Jack Picone
Fishermen motor out to sea past the breakwaters that were built several years ago in an effort to “break” the power of the surf and protect Ban Khun Samut Chin village © Jack Picone
Three of the five monks remaining at Samut Trawat temple suspend Thai flags to poles along the entrance walkway. © Jack Picone
The principal Buddha statue at Wat Khun Samut Trawat faces the advancing sea. © Jack Picone
At twilight, a resident Monk from Wat Khun Samut Trawat gazes out to sea and says, “That is where our village once was”. © Jack Picone
~ Ends.
Nancy was bright and engaging. We spoke about the things that connected us – our family, friends and where we came from [Jack Picone/Al Jazeera]
The heat was oppressive and crushing; the kind that has claimed countless lives in Australia’s dead heart...read more
Interesting to see one of my iconic photographs [Novice Monks, Golden Horse Monastery] in a copy artists shop in central Bangkok being reinterpreted as a painting.
It is unfinished, and the artist was nowhere to be found. As a photographer, it is odd to see one of your photographs morphing into another medium. Odd — good — so far.
I am curious to enter into a dialogue with the artist and intrigued to see what it will look like when finished.
Exciting.
Photograph by © Jack Picone
Above, work-in-progress painting of “Novice Monks, Golden Horse Monastery”.
Photograph by © Jack Picone
Above, the original black and white photograph made on the Thai-Burma border.
Photograph by © Jack Picone
The people you see on the way back from the launderette.‘You Need Eyes In The Back Of Your Head’.
Words and Photographs by Jack Picone.
© Photograph by Jack Picone. Portrait of Ma Da. Nai Soi. Thai – Burma Border.
Portrait of Ma Da. Nai Soi. Thai – Burma Border. © Photograph by Jack Picone.
A souvenir stall at Nai Soi village. The diagram shows how the collar bone and rib cage are pushed down by the rings to create the illusion of a long neck. © Photograph by Jack Picone.
This Spanish tourist took the brass ring from a Kayan woman and put it over his head. He thought it was funny and so did his friends. Few tourists who visit the village of Nai Soi really understand that it is in fact a refugee camp they are visiting and that the Kayan people they are photographing, videoing and gawking at are effectively imprisoned. Mae Hong Son, province Thai-Burma border. © Photograph by Jack Picone.
A Kayan woman baths wearing her brass coil. The coil is made of heavy brass weighing around 10lbs it takes significant effort for her to support her neck as she bathes. Nai Soi, Mae Hong Son, Thailand. Mae Hong Son, province Thai-Burma border. © Photograph by Jack Picone.
Reflection of Kayan woman. The small triangular mirror is used by the Kayan woman as they groom themselves. Mae Hong Son, province Thai-Burma border. © Photograph by Jack Picone.
Ends.
Postscript: For accuracy sake please be aware that Ma Da, the young female subject in my earlier photographs, died in the Nai Soi camp at the age of 22 from a stomach illness caused by the insanitary conditions at the camp. Mae Hong Son, province Thai-Burma border.
Reportage Photography Workshops 
Camera, Documentary Photography, Exhibition, Jack Picone and Stephen Dupont Photography Workshops, Landscapes, Patrick Brown, Reportage, Reportage Photography Workshops, social commentary, Thailand, Workshop News
HOPE | A PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION by PATRICK BROWN in BANGKOK
In Photography News on September 28, 2015 at 2:45 AMThe American Photographer Lee Friedlander {b. 1934} once said he was mostly interested in photographing ‘people and things’, but it could be suggested that he expressed those interests in the depiction of places. A photograph can transport the viewer to the street corner of the town they live in, to the next city or the edge of the earth.
A photograph is created by a photographer standing in a particular place at a specific time. Amongst the many reasons for a photographer initially making the photograph one that is paramount is that the photographer wishes to ‘take the viewer there’.
Patrick Brown’s polaroid landscapes of Australia’s ‘Never Never’ (As Indigenous Australians sometimes refer to the Outback) exhibition titled, HOPE and on show at The Jam Factory in Bangkok Sept. 17 – Oct. 17th succeeds eminently in ‘taking the viewer there’.
Brown’s dark and brooding polaroids not only ‘take the viewer there’ they also act as a kind of emotional trigger. On viewing the polaroids a yearning to travel to where Brown painstakingly made his photographs follows. The want to explore the places and understand the secret of their beauty beckons.
As with Brown’s polaroids, compelling photographs always ask more questions than they ever answer. Questions similar to, what is my relation to these vast ‘forever’ spaces? Where do I or not fit in?
What is unique about this exhibition is that Brown has answered some of the questions photographs like these often ask. He has been successful in reading the visual signifiers’ and messages thrown at him by the natural (and at times the manmade world) which is busy in an endless cycle of creation and destruction. He has given their indicators shape and context. He puts the viewer and by extension — man the protagonist — squarely ‘there’. It becomes evident that man is not just standing on the edge of these landscapes. Man is center stage. He has ideologically, historically, economically, agriculturally, spiritually interacted and finally appropriated these vast spaces. Harmony, discord, fruitfulness, barrenness, utopia and destruction amongst a myriad of others have followed. Man’s interaction is burnt into landscapes not unlike the burnt landscapes themselves documented here. Perhaps the most important question these photographs solicit from the viewer is; will man protect these spaces for future generations or exploit and destroy them as he has done since time immemorial?
Each photograph in HOPE responds to the viewer in the form of a contemplative experience and potently compels the viewer to – question everything. ~ JP