Creativity Works: Photography MIDWAY CHECKIN

23 November 2020

This week the Creativity Works: Photography cohort have completed their Discover and Define stages and moved into the Develop phase where they are working on their ideas and bringing their responses to the brief, to life!

A major highlight of this week included the lecture from Newsha Tavaoklian and the 1:1 crits they had with her based on their idea brainstorms.

Newsha Tavaoklian began shooting for the Iranian press at 16 and has covered the Iraq war.

Tavakolian has photographed female guerilla fighters in Iraqi Kurdistan, Syria, and Colombia, prohibited Iranian female singers, and the lives of people living under sanctions.

The opportunity, to listen to her journey and hear about her work was extremely inspiring for the participants who noted in the chat:

“Newsha for President” and “I really needed to hear this, thank you so much.”

It is evident that the participants have been building on their learnings from the week before with their crits with Hannah Price.

Hannah Price is another phenomenal photographic artist and filmmaker; she set a task to respond to a fictional story written by Zadie Smith and produce a photographic response. This task was definitely pushed participants out of their comfort zones, but it was amazing to see the participants develop their storytelling skills and see the different responses and images created from the same story.

Another highlight of the week includes the pitching and storytelling session led by Zaisha Smith. The participants were able to mix with other participants on Content Production and Podcasting and learn the tricks to telling a great story and have new ears comment on their ideas.

Participants shared:

“it was amazing to make new friends and share my brief with everyone and get sick feedback – I am feeling pumped!”

The opportunity to listen to the journeys of both Hannah Price and Newsha Tavaoklian who were open and honest about the highs and lows of their careers as well as how they have developed their own personal photography style has been invaluable to the participants who want to pursue a career in photography!

Next week the cohort will continue to develop and refine their ideas and bring their projects to life.

Here are some images created by some participants in the workshop with Hannah - Zadie Smith:

- Alvyn Thomas

- Mariam N