'Edited Photographs1992-2004', by Nigel Shafran in Week 1 of 'My Modest Photography Book Collection'
I will personally lead you through the whole process of using studio lights, from how to use a light meter right through to creating simple lighting set ups for beautiful professional portraits. This hands on workshop lasts for approximately 4 hours and is a great introduction into making studio portraits. A model will be present for 2 hours to enable you to put into practise what you are learning. The course is held in Brighton, five minutes walk from Brighton station (three minutes going downhill on the way back).
Places will be limited to a maximum of 3 for any one workshop. One-to-one tuition is also available but is obviously on a first come first served basis, so get in quick if you want undivided attention.
© Luca Sage 2010
Group places are normally £120, with the earlybird 20% discount the price is only £96. (if booked before 21st May 2012)
One on One Tuition is normally £175, with the earlybird 20% discount the price is only £140.
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Everybody now owns a 5D MkII. (copyright Luca Sage 2012)
There's always going to be the people who think it's below them to use such an app but people probably thought that about Polaroid's when they first came out and look how revered that look is now. Similarly the first photographers' who made their own wet plate negatives probably frowned upon the use of manufactured film and ultimately 35mm film. Times change and we are experiencing the biggest and quickest revolution the photographic industry has ever been through. Digital is now king and seemingly everybody is now a 'photographer' due to the existence of phone cameras and sharing capabilities. The whole world is awash with images, recently it was said that Facebook has has 10 billion photos stored on it's site, an enormous figure and growing by the second but who would want to experience through that museum tour?
I graduated from my photography course in 2004 and in the last 8 years I have noticed a big, big difference in the industry. Social media plays a more central work in being your photographic face and indeed how much that face is seen. I'd rather it be more about pure photography but that's not really possible these days, it would be like trying to walk a tortoise on a motorway. Twitter has now become the photographers staff room, not many of us take trips to the film lab anymore, which traditionally used to serve as the photography social club. It was a place to catch up with other photographers and annoy your printers at the same time. As time went on and the industry stopped using film to a large extent the labs started to close and twitter took over the social reigns. The problem for people with addictive personalities, like myself, is that twitter is open 24/7, it never shuts. So from the moment you wake until the moment you sleep, you can be consumed by the 'up to the minute' goings on about the latest blog post, the latest coffee somebody's having, the latest shoot, the latest camera, the latest photography competition deadline extension...the list is endless and I admit that I have been a complete addict. Don't get me wrong, twitter has been great for me and it has put me in touch with some great people in the photographic industry and is a wealth of information (sometimes too much), but I have tweeted way too much. It's got in the way of my creativity and productivity, which is why I'm cutting back, again.
copyright Luca Sage 2012
Which brings me to my point, we communicate in an ever evolving style these days. The World is highly image based and the speed at which imagery is churned out across our globe is phenomenal. Picture editors sift through thousands and thousands of images daily. Instagram is unique in that it allows you to become an unpaid picture editor, you simply choose who you wish to follow and then trawl through the daily input of pictures, sometime pressing the 'like' button in a show of appreciation. We communicate firstly through images and then through friendship. We have arrived at the brave new world where the former king of photography, Kodak, is bankrupt and on it's knees. Meanwhile across the internet cable one social media company buys another social media company for an almost unthinkable amount of money, probably more than Kodak has made in it's lifetime. Not only is the $1 billion figure a shock but it is the fact that Instagram is barely a year old and only has 9 employees. This mirrors not only the way our industry is going but also the way a lot of the industrialised world communicates, visually and instantly. The fact that the Instagram is so valuable but photographers uploading do not make a penny is telling on how we value imagery these days because of it's abundance. We are all entertaining each other with our little snapshots of our World. We constantly share, we constantly edit each others photos. We are all seemingly fountains of pictures overflowing night and day. I now spend more time of Instagram than I do on Twitter, that's got to stop.
Copyright Luca Sage 2012.
So the moral of my ramblings, "Get help before it's too late!" I hear you shout. But aside from my personal time management flaws, the point I'm making is that the World is going through a photographic explosion and we probably won't be issued with an 'only one image per week' policy by our respective governments any time soon. The fact that Instagram was bought for $1 Billion illustrates how important imagery as a way of communicating is at this present time. Visuals tell a thousand words instantly, whether they are true or not matters not. There will be more and more images, the fountains will not stop, editing skills will become taught as part of the national curriculum. But the biggest question is how will Facebook be recouping all those dollars? I doubt they just wanted to show off and keep Instagram in their garage. But instead of trying to answer that question I'm off to build a portrait app.
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From the series 'Jamestown, 2012'
Copyright © 2012 Luca Sage.
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We shot in a gorgeous park yesterday, we had to dodge the rain but it was fun when the sun came out. Here's an outtake of Betsy, our super model, warming herself up between shots (it was a tad cold with for just one layer).
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Walter Ammann, Director of Sol Beni, with one of his students at Sol Beni, Abidjan.
Copyright © 2012 Luca Sage.
ASEC Mimosas is the closest anywhere has come to being a real life 'football factory'. Having produced almost all of Ivory Coast's best footballer's the academy must surely be one of the best in the World, especially as it is situated in one of the World's least developed countries. Players like Kalou, Eboue, Toure and Gervinho have all come through the ranks at ASECs Sol Beni school where the motto is 'Les enfants s’amusent'. The Swiss director of Sol Beni Walter Ammann has a clear vision of how football should be played “If football isn’t a pleasure any more, the football will die. Here we need to win with lots of goals. It’s all about the manner in which we win. We want to play like Barcelona – that’s our objective. Sometimes Africans like dribbling just to dribble, not necessarily because it’s the most effective tool. You always need to be getting pleasure in what you do.” I'm certainly looking forward to seeing the new crop of ASEC players coming through onto the World stage, especially if they can dance like Eboue.
This story was originally featured in Monocle Magazine.
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Kolo and Yaya Toure have played for some of the richest and exciting teams in the World but their footballing stage today is a far cry from their original training ground. The Touré brothers were born in Bouaké, Cote d'Ivoire and like many Ivorians quickly developed a love of football. This is the coach who started them on theroad to the best leagues in the World, a remarkable journey for two brothers from an African country being torn apart by conflict.
