Photography

Part II of Anna Wang's workshop with the VII Photo Agency in Cambodia

Anna Wang is taking part in a second weeklong workshop with VII photographer Marcus Bleasdale at the end of June, 2009 in Kashmir. The cost is roughly 2,300 US dlrs for a week, including hotel and board. Anyone interested should contact Anna or the VII Photo Agency directly.

6am: After a bowl of noodles in front of a Wat (is there anything better than street food?), I started to explore the quiet streets of Siem Reap looking for pictures that would depict rituals and traditions. This was no glorified vacation where you sightsee, chit chat and take a few pictures of nice temples and sunsets. Everyone on the course had to have a topic, just as if you were on assignment from a magazine.

Living and working in the Lake Geneva Region but also traveling worldwide with a major international organization, contributor Anna Wang has long been a passionate amateur photographer. Yet as with any avid enthusiast, she has always wanted to share notes and learn from those who do the craft professionally. Anna finally got her chance as part of a week-long workshop in Cambodia with world-renowned photojournalists, Gary Knight, a member of the Paris, New York and Los Angeles-based VII Photo agency and Philip Blenkinsop of NOOR. Both were running a series of workshops and adventures in France, Cambodia and Rajasthan in the Autumn and Winter of 2008 and 2009. (See end of piece for more details on the Masterclass Workshops). Anna will share her experiences and photographs with Essential Edge readers over the next few weeks.

Artists often fall into their professions unintentionally, and occasionally against their will.  They become creative because no other option is left open to them. Samuel Rodriguez  was studying education when he first went to Palestine in 1999 as a volunteer  with an NGO working with children.  “It was my first trip away from Europe,” he recalls,”and I met a reality that was very different from mine. I had the feeling that I needed to take photographs of what I was seeing.”

Rodriguez   soon returned to school, but found that all he could only think about  was photography. A short course on photojournalism in Barcelona sealed his fate in 2004.  The course led him to Lebanon where he photographed the Shatila refugee camp.  From there he went to Morocco to cover an earthquake, which led him to an exhibition in Barcelona.