Magnum Photos Blog

Education 

Magnum Workshop Shanghai with Olivia Arthur, Chien-Chi Chang, Alex Majoli, Jacob Aue Sobol and Alessandra Sanguinetti 

June 11, 2015 
The Magnum Workshop Shanghai is an exciting new photographic development opportunity for regional and international photographers and marks Magnum’s first official presence in mainland China.

Produced in conjunction with Magnum’s image licensing agent, <a href='http://www.imaginechina.com' target='_blank'>Imagine China</a>, this five-day program will guide and encourage photographers in refining visual narratives in the Magnum tradition of documentary storytelling.

Led by Magnum’s experienced photographic members Olivia Arthur, Chien-Chi Chang, Alex Majoli, Jacob Aue Sobol and Alessandra Sanguinetti, this workshop will elevate the professional standard of both regional and international photographers.

<b>Aims</b>
Intended for photographers wishing to broaden their visual perspective and push the boundaries of their personal development, the Magnum Workshop Shangahi will provide an opportunity for photographers to shoot, polish and publish their work, with an emphasis on refining storytelling ability.
The workshop provides an opportunity for Magnum’s photographers to meet and have a continual dialogue with photographers from China, forming part of Magnum’s ongoing commitment to supporting artists in a diverse range of geographies.

<b>Teaching formats</b>

An exclusive group of 60 photographers will be selected from an open call for submissions; 12 per individual workshop group. Workshops will be conducted in English and each group will be equipped with one professional translator. Participants will be expected to fully immerse themselves in the process; introducing & contextualizing their work to their mentor, engaging in the work of peers and defining longer-term goals for their practice.

We recommend participants arrive with at least one realistic project idea they wish to develop during the workshop, and that preliminary research be conducted before the workshop begins. This should include contact liaison, access information and even early shooting.

On the first day participants will have the opportunity to present their existing work and discuss project ideas. The workshop structure is self-directed and participants will be responsible for their own coordination and time management. Candidates are encouraged to be realistic about what is achievable in five days.

Due to the fast pace of the workshop, Magnum highly recommends that participants produce and edit their work digitally, using their own laptops. Individuals wishing to use film may do so, but at their own cost and during the time imposed. Lab services will be recommended.
The workshop will be taught in a variety of formats, as directed by the workshop tutor:

• Self-directed shooting
• Group reviews
• One to one critiques
• Editing & sequencing sessions
• Tutor lectures
• Mini assignments

<b>Outcomes</b>

By the end of the workshop, participants should have a thoroughly planned and critically informed self-directed body of photographic work; be able to demonstrate creative, visual, intellectual and technical abilities; have a deeper understanding of the history of documentary photography and Magnum’s contribution to it; critically analyze photography within both historical and theoretical frameworks; engage in informed self-reflection and critique peers; demonstrate an understanding of editing photographs for different ouptuts (‘versioning’); develop an understanding of the variety of ways in which photography can function as a means of personal expression and as a documentary record and demonstrate proficiency in the use of camera equipment and editing images. The workshop culminates in a public projection of student work in front of a professional audience.

<b>How to Apply</b>

The workshop is open to all photographers with a good level of photographic aptitude. Regional photographers are actively encouraged. Candidates will be expected to arrive comfortable with their equipment and ready to photograph
Interested photographers will need to submit the application form with at a selection of 10 images derived from a singular body of work, along with biography and a short paragraph on what is hoped to be achieved in this program. The mentors will select participants based on their portfolio. Participants should state the Magnum photographer of their choice in their statement.

The deadline of application is 14th August 2015. Accepted students will be informed by 21st August 2015. Full tuition payment needs to be completed by 4th September 2015 to secure your position in the class.

<a href='http://www.dfic.cn/workshop.ic#8Page' target='_blank'>Apply here</a>

<b>Tuition</b>

£1,300 / 12,000 CNY (does not include travel, accommodations or on the ground expenses).

Magnum Photos reserves the right to cancel groups with less than 8 participants. Students will be given either a full refund or offered a place with an alternative photographer. In the event of a cancellation, students will be given at least 2 weeks advance notice. Magnum Photos reserves the right to change or alter the program advertised.
- If a participant decides to cancel for whatever reason, this must be confirmed in writing:
. Magnum Photos will reimburse all the registration costs except for £100 administrative fee, if the participant informs Magnum Photos of cancellation at least 3 weeks before the first day of the workshop. Beyond this time limit, Magnum Photos will charge the following:
. 50% of the cost if cancelled between 6 and 15 days before the workshop commences.
. 100% of the cost if cancelled less than 5 days before the workshop commences.
. All workshops that are commenced but not completed through the fault of either the contractor/or participant need to be paid in full.
- Magnum Photos is not responsible for reimbursement of travel expenses in case a workshop is cancelled. We recommend that you buy refundable air tickets and/or travel insurance.

<b>Travel & Accommodation</b>

Participants are expected to make their own arrangements regarding travel and accommodation; a list of suitable accommodation options will be provided to successful candidates.

Flights to Beijing depart from most major cities. We recommend you book a flexible travel ticket; in the case of unforeseen circumstance Magnum will not be held responsible for travel reimbursement.
Please ensure you have the necessary travel documents & relevant visas in order to attend the event. Magnum Photos can provide letters of support when necessary.

<a href='http://www.dfic.cn/workshop.ic#8Page' target='_blank'>Apply here</a>

<b>The Tutors</b>

<b>Olivia Arthur</b>

Olivia was born in London and grew up in the UK. She studied mathematics at Oxford University and photojournalism at the London College of Printing.

She began working as a photographer in 2003 after moving to Delhi and was based in India for two and a half years.

In 2006 she left for Italy to take up a one-year residency with Fabrica, during which she began working on a series about women and the East-West cultural divide. This work has taken her to the border between Europe and Asia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. She has recieved support from the Inge Morath Award, the National Media Museum, OjodePez-PhotoEspana Award for Human Values.

In 2010 she co-founded Fishbar, a space for photography in London with Philipp Ebeling.

Her first book Jeddah Diary, about young women in Saudi Arabia, was published in 2012.

She continues to return to India - where her long-term work has been supported by a grant from the Fondation Jean-Luc Lagadere in Paris - and to work in London where she lives.

<b>Chien-Chi Chang</b>

In his work, Chien-Chi Chang makes manifest the abstract concepts of alienation and connection. “The Chain,” a collection of portraits made in a mental asylum in Taiwan, caused a sensation when it was shown at La Biennale di Venezia (2001) and the Bienal de Sao Paolo (2002). The life-sized photographs of pairs of patients literally chained together resonate with Chang’s jaundiced look at the less visible bonds of marriage. He has treated marital ties in two books—I do I do I do (2001), a collection of images depicting alienated grooms and brides in Taiwan, and in Double Happiness (2005), a brutal depiction of the business of selling brides in Vietnam.

The ties of family and of culture are also the themes of an ambitious project begun in 1992. For 20 years, Chang has photographed the bifurcated lives of Chinese immigrants in New York’s Chinatown, along with those of their wives and families back home in Fujian. A work in progress, “China Town” was hung at the National Museum of Singapore in 2008 as part of a mid-career survey, “Doubleness.” Chang’s investigation of the ties that bind one person to another draws on his own deeply divided immigrant experience. Born in Taiwan in 1961, Chang studied at Soochow University (B.A. 1984) and at Indiana University (M.S. 1990). Chang joined Magnum in 1995 and became a full member in 2001.

<b>Jacob Aue Sobol</b>

Jacob Aue Sobol was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1976. He lived in Canada from 1994-95 and Greenland from 2000-2002. In Spring 2006 he moved to Tokyo, living there 18 months before returning to Denmark in August 2008. After studying at the European Film College, Jacob was admitted to Fatamorgana, the Danish School of Documentary and Art Photography in 1998. There he developed a unique, expressive style of black-and-white photography, which he has since refined and further developed.

In the autumn of 1999 he went to live in the settlement Tiniteqilaaq on the East Coast of Greenland. Over the next three years he lived mainly in this township with his Greenlandic girlfriend Sabine and her family, living the life of a fisherman and hunter but also photographing. The resultant book Sabine was published in 2004 and the work was nominated for the 2005 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.

In the summer of 2005 Jacob traveled with a film crew to Guatemala to make a documentary about a young Mayan girl’s first journey to the ocean. The following year he returned by himself to the mountains of Guatemala where he met the indigenous family Gomez-Brito. He stayed with them for a month to tell the story of their everyday life. The series won the First Prize Award, Daily Life Stories, World Press Photo 2006.

In 2006 he moved to Tokyo and during the next two years he created the images from his recent book I, Tokyo. The book was awarded the Leica European Publishers Award 2008 and published by ActesSud (France), Apeiron (Greece), Dewi Lewis Publishing (Great Britain), Edition Braus (Germany), LunwergEditores (Spain) and PelitiAssociati (Italy).

In 2008 Jacob started working in Bangkok and Copenhagen.

<b>Alex Majoli</b>

At the age of 15, Alex Majoli joined the F45 Studio in Ravenna, working alongside Daniele Casadio. While studying at the Art Institute in Ravenna, he joined GraziaNeri Agency and traveled to Yugoslavia to document the conflict. He returned many times over the next few years, covering all major events in Kosovo and Albania.

Majoli graduated from art school in 1991. Three years later, he made an intimate portrayal of the closing of an asylum for the insane on the island of Leros, Greece, a project that became the subject of his first book, Leros.

In 1995 Majoli went to South America for several months, photographing a variety of subjects for his ongoing personal project, 'Requiem in Samba'. He started the project 'Hotel Marinum' in 1998, on life in harbour cities around the world, the final goal of which was to perform a theatrical multimedia show. That same year he began making a series of short films and documentaries.

After becoming a full member of Magnum Photos in 2001, Majoli covered the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and two years later the invasion of Iraq. He continues to document various conflicts worldwide for Newsweek, the New York Times Magazine, Granta and National Geographic.

Majoli, in collaboration with Thomas Dworzak, Paolo Pellegrin and IlkkaUimonen, had an extremely successful exhibition and installation Off Broadway in New York in 2004, which travelled to France and Germany. He then became involved in a project for the French Ministry of Culture entitled 'BPS', or 'Bio-Position System', about the social transformation of the city of Marseilles. A recently completed project, 'Libera me', is a reflection on the human condition.

Alex Majoli lives and works in New York.


<b>Alessandra Sanguinetti</b>

Alessandra Sanguinetti was born in New York, 1968, brought up in Argentina from 1970 until 2003, and is currently based in San Francisco.

She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and a Hasselblad Foundation grant. Her photographs are included in public and private collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her book, “On the Sixth Day”, was published by Nazraeli Press in January 2006.

She has photographed for the The New York Times Magazine, LIFE, Newsweek, and New York Magazine.