3. Anna Fox - Human Nature
Human Nature
By Anna Fox, in cooperation with Andrew Bruce
This workshop is about telling tales; using photography to reveal stories about the local environment and community, and perhaps also reveal something about our human nature today.
During the workshop the students will research, explore and consider the relationships between humans and nature in the local area of Kuldīga. They will seek out people who are willing to share their stories about the nature that surrounds them - from simple things such as walking the dog, to hunting or life as a farmer, or perhaps memorable tales about their first contact with nature (big or small) – all of them will have a story to tell either from the past or from the present. The challenge is to collect these stories and then translate them into a visual interpretation, in a way creating modern local myths.
The participants will be discovering new ways of combining photography with other mediums and approaches with the aim of telling stories. At the end of the workshop we will design a book together that includes all the work the participants have made. This will be a book of modern-day myths, an assemblage of folk tales about the essence of human nature in Kuldīga today.
Prior requirements/preparations:
The participants are asked to bring a story about a human nature relationship - ideally this would be a personal story but you can also bring someone else's story if you want. All the equipment necessary for executing work on site, including a computer with postprocessing and ideally Indesign programmes.
Anna Fox (UK) has been working in photography since 1983, she is currently Professor of Photography at The University College for the Creative Arts in Farnham. In 2010 she was shortlisted for the 2010 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize and in 2012 for the Pilar Citoler Prize. Her satirical, often humorous storytelling work has been included in numerous international group shows, including “Warworks” at The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography and the Victoria & Albert Museum, “How We Are: Photographing Britain” at Tate Britain, and the touring exhibition “Documentary Dilemmas and The Observers”. Anna Fox Photographs 1983 – 2007 was published by Photoworks in 2007 and her retrospective exhibition "Cockroach Diary and Other Stories" is currently touring Europe. Her latest books, Resort 1 and Resort 2, reveal the theatrical nature of the contemporary leisure experience in a holiday camp that has become an icon of British holiday culture.
Andrew Bruce (UK) is an artist working primarily with photography. His work deals with the position of animals in relation to culture and to the natural world. Using allegorical strategies to frame his poignant messages, Bruce questions our modern relationship to nature. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows, and he lectures extensively on the subject of photography in universities, museums and writes for educational publications. Bruce is a 2013 MA graduate of the Royal College of Art, London.