visual story telling & education
‘The three boys turned up with a couple of rice sacks, a bunch of leafy branches, and what looked like a few scraps of bright red fabric. Within half an hour, they were transformed into Kankurangs, and fully in character – jiggling branches, menacingly clashing machetes together… ‘ Read more here
Related Posts:
‘Photo Shoot Location – Watch our for the crocodiles‘
‘Masquerades’ West Africa
I just had a conversation with one of my sisters, who told me that my young nephew is about to study photography at school, and that his first powerpoint was going to be about my co-instigator in all things photography (from our expeditions – photography workshops), Jason Florio. Looking back, for links on here that might be of interest to my nephew, took me to the ‘Photos Tell Stories: teaching photography – a visual language‘ (P.T.S.s) workshop posts; all about when we held a number of photography workshops, around The Gambia, West Africa (thanks to a grant from the US Embassy, Banjul), with young Gambian students.
We are still so immensely honored to have had the opportunity to hold the workshops, and particularly proud of the level of work our young students produced – despite 99% of them having never even used a camera.
I just wanted to re-share this – especially for my nephew, Harry. Maybe one day, he’ll be the one teaching photography workshops somewhere in West Africa.
Enjoy!
Helen Jones-Florio
2014: ‘Photos Tell Stories‘ photography workshop #1: The Kombos region, The Republic of The Gambia, West Africa – students were chosen from various senior secondary schools in the region
The students spent most the first day in the classroom with Jason Florio, P.T.S.’s photographer and tutor, where he covered the following topics: a brief history of photography; what is a photograph; portraiture; environmental portraiture; reportage; landscape photography (including showing the students images from all of our contributing photographers); guides and techniques; what makes a good photograph; rules of photography (rule of thirds, leading lines, etc.); lighting; editing. Lastly, how the students could share their world through photography.
We then went on to familiarize the students with the digital cameras (thank you to FujiFilm USA for their support):
The students practice how to capture movement:
Following is a selection of work from the students – on the second day of the workshop – taken during their portraiture class:
The students with Jason Florio – image © P.T.S.’s workshop producer Helen Jones-Florio
To check out our ‘behind-the-scenes‘ album, please visit the ‘Photos Tell Stories’ FB page – where you can see the students and Jason Florio at work, during all the photography workshops.
Next up, we’ll be sharing the students images from ‘HOME’. After showing the students work from all our contributing photographers – Manjari Sharma; Amber Terranova; Amy Toensing; Sari Goodfriend; Ryan Heffernan; Ben Lowy; Stefan Falke; Oskar Landi; Thomas Donley; Brandon Remler; Wayne Lawrence; Chris Bartlett; Robert Goldstein; Henry Jacobson; Heloise Bergman – their assignment was to go and photograph their interpretation of ‘HOME’ . The following day, they returned to the workshop with some very interesting and inspired images. More on that very soon…
Other posts you might be interested in: ‘Teaching the art of portrait photography‘
Thank you for stopping by
The Florios (Helen & Jason)
I’ve been the Director of Print Sales, for Florio Photo for a number of years now; a project which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. So, when I was approached by another photographer (whose work I admire very much indeed), a few weeks ago, to see if I would be interested in selling his work too, thus, the seedling of an idea was planted… .
Suffice to say, the last few weeks have found me working on the idea (with thanks for some much-appreciated advice – and support – from a couple of dear girlfriends, who also just happen to be well-respected New York-based curators/photo editors), checking out various photographers, and building a new stand-alone fine art photography prints gallery site. A boutique gallery, where we will be featuring a select number of very fine photographers.
If you would like to follow our progress, feel free to click ‘follow‘ (see button at the bottom of the page).
More updates coming soon.
Excited!
See more ‘Travel’ – Helen Jones-Florio
PHOTOS TELL STORIES - documentary | filmmaking | photography | travel | Dogs 