Photographic Storytelling Workshop – November 25th online

Photographic Storytelling

What is it?

Photographers often speak of being visual storytellers, but our understanding of how photographic stories work is much less formalised than in other fields. This workshop adapts ideas from literature, cinema and other media, relating them to sets of photographs in order to equip participants with a set of clear ideas and techniques that they can use to tell better visual stories.

This workshop will lead participants through discussions and exercises designed to explore how stories are structured and created through images and encourages participants to think about the importance of narrative, both to projects with an obvious story, and those without one.

To get maximum benefit from the day participants should come to this workshop with a project already in progress which they can apply ideas discussed during the day to.

Timetable (GMT)

8.50 – Participants gather ready to start.

9.00 to 10.30 – Identifying and understanding the building blocks of all storytelling.

10.30 – 11.00 – First break and activity.

11.00 – 12.30 – Understanding time in stories through chronological and non-chronological narrative structures.

12.30 – 13.30 – Second break and activity.

13.30 – 15.00 – Symbolic, metaphorical and associative approaches to storytelling.

15.00 – 15.30 – Third break and activity.

15.30 – 17.00 – Cinematic techniques and sequencing tips. Conclusion and Q&A.

How the workshop delivered?
The workshop is broken into four elements delivered online over the course of a day, with activities to work on between each workshop element. The workshop is taught using a browser based video conferencing platform called Jitsi. You’ll be sent a link to join, there is no need to create an account or download anything. At the end you will also be sent a recording of the workshop along with a list of resources and further reading.

Who is leading it?
My name is Lewis Bush, I’m a photographer, researcher and writer. I have extensive experience of online teaching including teaching for nearly a decade on the London College of Communications MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography (online) which I also ran for three years. I have been running these workshops since 2019 and have trained over 500 people through them. You can read my full bio here.

The fine print:
I believe workshops should be small enough for a good level of interaction, so workshops are capped at 10 participants. I also need at least six people to sign up for the workshop to run. In the unlikely event of a workshop needing to be cancelled participants will have their full fee returned to them. Participants needing to cancel up to two weeks before the workshop will have their fee returned less a 20% charge. Cancellations made less than a week before the day of the workshop are non-refundable.

You can read some testimonials about the Studio Workshops program here.

If you’ve got any question please get in contact with me here.