AFM One Year Program 2022

Workshop

2022
Athens, Berlin, Budapest

About the
WORKSHOP

OVERVIEW

Art Foto Mode (AFM) is offering an independent photography programme over a twelve-month period in professional partnership with the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in Budapest. The aim is for participating photographers to produce strong, concise and meaningful projects, exploring the challenging process of creative and intellectual visual strategies.

The emphasis of the programme is experiential, and to study the production of works within the broad spectrum of the ‘documentary’ genre, engaging with the predominant dialogues within the photographic medium including issues related to the: subjective/objective, social/private, document/expression. Understanding authorship, narrative and conceptual factors will be the key ingredients in finding the correct approach to the specific subject matter. Often over looked, is the human experience of how we see and perceive reality. Optics and how we visualise reality are key factors in building the foundation of photographic projects.

Over the course of the twelve-month period, there will be four physical seminar sessions in three different European cities. Each series of sessions will be conducted by notable, renowned and experienced photographers, editors, and curators, as tutors. The aim of each seminar meeting is to make critical progress with the developing projects, both as a group and individual tutorials. Importantly, between the seminars, participants will be required to have monthly Skype/Zoom meetings with the AFM director, Michael Grieve, who will be the overseer of the entire programme.

Participants can begin the programme with projects that are in the early stages of development or begin with new projects.

The three European cities will act as inspirational environments to aid in the creative process. The locations will be Athens x2, Berlin, Budapest and finally Berlin again for the final exhibition (gallery venue to be confirmed).

The exhibition will take place in early 2023. During the exhibition participants will be required to make a presentation of the work and explain their experience and the  process of making their project. The exhibition is a focal point to work towards and it is not expected that participants will finish their projects at this point. It is essentially an exhibition of work in progress. AFM will provide the venue and promotion, and participants are responsible for the production of printing, framing, projections and installation. The exhibition will be guided by AFM director, Michael Grieve, but essentially the curation will be a collaborative effort from everyone who is involved.

The AFM programme is purely independent, and recognises the importance, and growing necessity, for intensive, experiential and less formal modes of photography education.

 

ROBERT CAPA CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY CENTER

The AFM One Year Programme is in a professional partnership with the Capa Center, who have offered a scholarship to one Hungarian photographer to participate in the programme. They will also host the November workshop with Tim Clark.

 

PROGRAM 2022

ATHENS, 01-05 March: First workshop with photographers, Vanessa Winship and George Georgiou.

BERLIN, 23-27 May: Second workshop with Magnum photographer, Rafal Milach.

ATHENS, 01-05 September: Third workshop with AFM director/photographer, Michael Grieve, and Sylvia Sachini, director of Misc.Athens and co founder of VOID.

BUDAPEST, 02-06 November: Fourth workshop with Tim Clark, Curator and Editor/Founder of 1000 Words Contemporary Photography Magazine.

 

Profiles of all the tutors are featured in the CONTRIBUTORS section.

 

ATHENS WORKSHOP with Vanessa Winship and George Georgiou

As the first workshop of the programme, participants will present their portfolios and any works in progress. It will be important for Vanessa and George to better understand each individual’s intellectual and creative sensibility. The purpose of these 5-days is to propose project ideas, and for these ideas to be discussed in great detail in group discussions and individually. It will be a time for Vanessa and George to conduct lectures and presentations about their own work and methods in producing long term projects. Before participants leave they will have a very clear idea about the subject of their project and the visual strategies need to effectively express the subject.

 

BERLIN WORKSHOP with Rafal Milach

The second workshop is a time when participants will have already researched and began their projects. Works in progress will be presented to Rafal and together in group discussions problems and possibilities will be critiqued. Rafal will present his own work and explain his projects, books and visual techniques. Participants will have a stronger idea of the direction of their projects and visual strategies. We have a special invitation to meet the curator and writer, Thomas Weski, at the Michael Schmidt Archive, and the archive of the Kicken Gallery.

 

ATHENS WORKSHOP with Sylvia Sachini and Michael Grieve 

The third workshop will be a critical time to view projects in progress. This 5 day workshop will be an intensive period to constructively critique projects for the first 3 days that should be substantial at this juncture. For the last two days Sylvia Sachini will conduct lectures on the complex issue of publishing photobooks.

 

BUDAPEST WORKSHOP with Tim Clark

This final workshop will be hosted by the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center.  Participants will benefit greatly with this partnership between The Capa Center and AFM. Tim Clark is the founder and editor of 1000 Words Contemporary Photography Magazine and a curator. This workshop will begin the process of finalising and editing projects and thinking in terms for exhibiting and possible book production. It will also be necessary to identify which projects demand a longer period of time to develop and which do not.

 

Useful websites:

www.capacenter.hu

www.archivmichaelschmidt.de

www.kicken-gallery.com

www.1000wordsmag.com

www.vanessawinship.com

www.georgegeorgiou.net

www.rafalmilach.com

www.miscathens.com

www.michaelgrieve.co.uk

 

 

Michael Grieve/Director of Art Foto Mode

Since 2010 I have been a senior lecturer at universities and taught at independent schools of photography. I now teach at the Ostkreuzschule for Fotografie, an independent school of documentary photography in Berlin. I have experienced the teaching of photography first hand and have concluded that independent forms of photographic education are the way forward.  The AFM programme is offering new possibilities, built and inspired by the old forms of photography education, such as the Werkstadt in Berlin during the 80’s, conducted by Michael Schmidt, that brought many great photographers to teach in its humble abode, and the Stockholm School of Photography, directed by Christer Stromholm in the 60’s and 70’s. Contemporary alternative schools of photography can be found in Europe, each with their unique vision, including documentary based Ostkreuzschule für Fotofrafie in Berlin, and the more intimate Atelier Smedsby in Paris. The general ethos is for photographers to come together with a shared belief in the medium, and produce meaningful projects within an intense yet informal framework. Even if the camera is directed away from oneself the emphasis is always on the subjective experience.

Tutors descriptions can be found here: https://artfotomode.com/contributors/

Vanessa Winship
www.vanessawinship.com

George Georgiou
www.georgegeorgiou.net

Rafal Milach
www.rafalmilach.com

Tim Clark
www.1000wordsmag.com

Michael Grieve
www.michaelgrieve.co.uk

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ARTIST

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