From explaining technical nitty-gritties of the profession to exploring how slight improvements in form, content and function can refine one’s skills, 17 specialised photography subjects are being tackled by some of the industry’s best at the XPOSURE International Photography Festival workshops in Sharjah this year.  

 

Talking about his workshop, Photography: Form, Content and Function, Prof J. Tomas Lopez, Professor and Chair, University of Miami, said, “Today everyone is a photographer. With smartphones in hand and automated camera tricks, it is not difficult to make a photograph. However, it is very difficult to make a photograph that is good, interesting, and most importantly, tells a story. Every photograph made is a self-portrait, it is a poetic metaphor of who you are. My workshop talks about the aspects of form, content, and function in photography.”

 

“XPOSURE 2019 is an amazing platform for people who wish to learn. It is also a platform that connects photographers from around the world and allows them to network and mingle. Photography is usually a very lonely profession, so it means a lot that XPOSURE does this to connect us, for a matter of few days, before we go back to our worlds,” added Prof. Lopez, who brings over 60 years of experience to his workshops. 

 

Apart from sessions catering to general skills, there are workshops for specific learning requirements. One such well-attended workshop has Philip Lee Harvey leading. Titled Learning travel photography, the workshop sums up the important lessons learnt by Harvey in 20 years of his experience as a travel photographer. 

 

Harvey said, “I have travelled over 120 countries. My experience comes from the fundamental necessity of clicking and creating pictures that have a perspective, a narrative. I am at XPOSURE to share this accumulated knowledge. My workshop aims at inspiring the new generation of travel photographers, who journey not just because they want to click pictures, but because they want to tell stories through this art.”

 

Mike Browne, who is leading three workshops, namely, Get the best from a subject, Find your settings, and Think like a photographer, said, “Photography is rightly termed as an art. It needs one to have a balance of technical proficiency and thinking. My workshop ‘Think like a photographer’ touches upon the inspirational and emotional aspects of photography while ‘Find your settings’ is about the hardware expertise to get the best out of a shot.”

 

“This is my first visit to XPOSURE and it is amazing how this event caters to all aspects of photography. You are surrounded by world-famous artists in the field and get a chance to learn from them, interact with them. I don’t think there is anything similar hosted anywhere in the world,” added Browne, who is a well-known commercial photographer with an expertise in training and educating. 

 

The workshops continue until Sunday, September 22. A full list is available at https://workshops.xposure.ae/