Last November Kate Stanworth – a highly commended photographer from the 2018 award round – worked with Syrian refugees to create a set of photo essays.
The workshops were funded by the Trust as part of a three-year pilot for education and project development work. We’re offering photographers in our network the opportunity to pitch for funds to pay for a workshop they’d like to run with the public, or to pay for a professional development opportunity.
Our first bursary went to Kate Stanworth who teamed up with the non-profit Hikayetna to develop a three-week photo-essay workshop for Syrian Refugees in North West London.
Kate organised two sessions; the first included photographic presentations, training and practical skills workshops. The participants were then asked to work on their own photo essays over a two-week break. The second workshop looked at their work and discussed the challenges they faced, both on technical and in storytelling areas. Kate says that the participants were hugely engaged in the workshops, and worked hard to complete their photo essays; “there was [this] feeling of having had an important human exchange“.
The participants had this to say:
“I learnt a lot in the class. Now I know how to think about light and camera angles when taking photographs. I didn’t even know what a photo-essay was before this.” (Amir)
“I enjoyed the class, especially thinking about the light, and when to use flash. The most important thing I learnt was how to make a story with your pictures.” (Dania)
“Thank you for this beautiful work, it is inspiring to us.” (Sulaiman)