To think of the image as poetry is to escape from reality to reconstruct one's own story, it is to use one's gaze, one's sensitivity, one's singularity to tell what touches us, intrigues us, challenges us, surpasses us...

The challenge of these five days will be to develop a photographic writing that is specific to us and to question through a personal realization the link to the body and to space, in substance and in form.

Lived as an experience, the process will reveal in each and everyone their poetic relationship to the world. A rich step, necessary to succeed in weaving a story that is both sensitive and constructed.

The framing, the compositions, the light, the colors will be all elements that Laura Bonnefous will take the time to analyze individually and collectively in order to reveal the singular and poetic photographic writing of each participant.

To feel and question what surrounds us, walls, light, architecture, emptiness, nature, interstices, silhouettes, a posture, others, a look, a story.

Looking through a new prism, giving yourself the time to contemplate, question yourself, decipher, feel, then deconstruct, rethink and capture in your own way will be the objectives of the moments devoted to shooting.

Moments that will alternate with editing sessions, to give substance to a whole, to superimpose, to assemble, to take a step back as if we were composing a painting.

The sincere and caring support of Laura Bonnefous will be both theoretical and technical. As the days go by, it is the conceptual and formal aspects that will be clarified. Depending on the experiences specific to each person, technical advice (framing / light / lighting / post production / editing) will allow you to make choices, open up perspectives and refine your own photographic language.

The techniques, the distance, the aesthetic possibilities will be very open and will lead to precious exchanges. The crossing of points of view within the group will reveal the multiple interpretations of the notions of body and space.

Little by little, selection after selection, a series will take shape, allowing the group to clarify its vision, the rhythm, the articulation and the correspondences between the images.

A time will then be devoted to the way of presenting the works realized, in the form of an exhibition or a small edition. This last phase will allow to approach the question of the presentation of a series as well as the story that is told.

The Workshop is held in french (with English translation if necessary).


LAURA BONNEFOUS 
Laura Bonnefous is a photographer, she lives and works in Paris.
Through a plastic image emphasizing the spaces she encounters and those she recreates, it is a certain poetry of reality that she proposes to us.
Inspired by the relationship that Man has with our contemporary landscape and captivated by the mutations experienced by our society, she deciphers and studies our mythologies to propose a sensitive vision.

It is at the Beaux Arts de Paris, at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and at the École des Gobelins that she develops her practice between image and volume.

In 2021, she participates in the Festival de Saint Brieuc and produces her first book of her series Failles with Editions H2L2. In 2022, she realized her second book Kilamba which was released during the Rencontres d'Arles 2022 with Editions Louis Vuitton.

She is one of the 30 Under 30 Womens Photographers in 2015 and won various awards such as the Bourse du talent, the Prix Picto, the Prix des Directeurs de création and is a finalist for awards such as the Académie des Beaux Arts or the BMW residence.
Website: Laura Bonnefous

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Face-to-face training
Location: historic center of Arles
Mobility: stairs to access the building and for several interior rooms (contact us)
Number of participants: between 6 and 10 people
Start of the photo course on the first day: 10:00 a.m.
End of the photo course on the last day: 7:00 p.m. followed by a group presentation until 9:00 p.m.
Hours on other days: 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Possibility to bring your meal and eat on site during the lunch break

CONTENT
- Study and analysis of the photographs taken
- Daily shooting
- Technical session with a digital camera
- Definition of a personal subject
- Selections of the photographs taken

BRING
- A selection of around 30 images attesting to your practice (preferably on paper/format of your choice)
- Your camera, charger and cables
- 2 or 3 memory cards
- A Mac-compatible hard drive or your computer if you wish
- Clothing, bag, shoes, etc. appropriate for spending several hours outdoors.

TEACHING METHOD
- Taught by an instructor (contact us for more information)

EQUIPMENT
- Mac computers
- A photo library (app. 500 references)
- Various kinds of lighting systems, studio accessories, tripod, etc.

EVALUATION
- Private end-of-course interview and evaluation
- The instructor continuously evaluates the personal series
- Oral end-of-course evaluation

FORMALISATION AT THE END OF THE COURSE
- End-of-course certificate

CONTACTS AND INFORMATION
Les Rencontres d’Arles
Siret: 309 952 489 000 32
Activity declaration number: 93 13 002 55 13
Marie Couteux & Marion Brun stage@rencontres-arles.com
+33(0) 490 967 606 
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