Research Techniques Workshop – October 21st online

Research Techniques

What is it?

Research led approaches have become increasingly popular in photography, facilitating everything from intensive research into photographer’s family histories, to investigative projects seeking to reveal wrongdoing.

This workshop draws on academic and investigative research methodologies and covers approaches for organising and focusing your research so it is conducted as efficiently and effectively as possible, as well as looking in detail at some of the most useful and readily accessible online and offline information sources you might use in a project.

To get maximum benefit from the day participants should come to this workshop with an idea for a topic they would like to research.

Timetable (GMT)

8.50 – Participants gather ready to start.

9.00 to 10.30 – Planning and organising your research, setting goals and developing a hypothesis.

10.30 – 11.00 – First break and activity.

11.00 – 12.30 – Advanced online research using search engines and social media

12.30 – 13.30 – Second break and activity.

13.30 – 15.00 – Using images and maps as information sources, including close reading images and geolocation techniques.

15.00 – 15.30 – Third break and activity.

15.30 – 17.00 – Using archives, government registries, and freedom of information requests. 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.