Diamond Matters, Kadir van Lohuizen

Mirroring the progress of the diamond from the mines of Africa to the world of fashion, Diamond Matters records the lifespan of the world’s most precious stone. Starting with the mineworkers—many just children—celebrated photographer Kadir van Lohuizen tracks the sparkling ice on its socially upward journey. With interviews from those digging it from hillsides with bare hands to participants in conflicts in Zaire, Sierra Leone, and Angola; to dealers and to wearers, it is a beautiful yet deeply disturbing and thought-provoking book.

The book charts the rising awareness of the blood diamond issue, as pressure and the threat to its image grew in the diamond industry to create a certification system guaranteeing that only conflict-free diamonds came on the market. While new pacts have reduced smuggling and added more transparency, still little of the world’s enormous mineral profits flow back to the people. A fair-trade agreement with profits shared by all is the next step.
Bound in luxurious suede, with a small diamond on the front cover, and elegantly printed in tritone on five different papers, Diamond Matters is an explosive idea in a small package.

Dutch-born Kadir van Lohuizen is the recipient of numerous international awards and grants, including prizes from World Press Photo in 1997 and Foundation Vluchteling; the Dick Scherpenzeel Prize in 2000; a 2001 grant from the Foundation for Visual Arts, Design, and Architecture; and more. He is the author of five books and numerous exhibitions.

Keith Carter: Hocus Focus Master Class

November 12-14 2010

This shooting/discussion master class is designed to help you discover or renew your creative spirit, and broaden the way you think about photography. Its purpose is to help serious amateur or professional photographers reconcile practical and creative lives, to re-examine your own creative process exploring the narrative, aesthetic, and emotional aspects of image making, and find new paths to creative growth. Our goals are to help each participant develop or refine a sense of personal style and to make serious amateur, fine-art, and commercial work more passionate and fulfilling.

Emphasizing simplicity, use of natural light, practical demonstrations, field-trips, individual portfolio reviews, and discussions centering on the work of both historically significant and little known photographers, we try to refine our views on producing work and balancing the various aspects of a busy life. In addition to various techniques and expressive digital printmaking, we discuss how to develop projects, exhibitions, and the publishing world.

Participants may work in black and white or color, film or digital. All camera formats welcome. Everyone is encouraged to bring a sense of humor and a sense of purpose. Wise-asses, hotdogs, and burn-outs are welcome.

Tuition & fees: $850

A Beginner's Workshop on Photobook Publishing, with Melanie McWhorter

December 6 & 7, 2010

This two-day workshop covers the evolution of a photography book from its inception as an idea to a finished product.

Intended for photographers with little or no experience in publishing, A Beginner's Workshop on Photobook Publishing is an interactive, dynamic workshop that enables participants to fine tune their ideas and become familiar with design, layout and essential publishing processes. When completed, participants will be able to make decisions about publishing their work and envision all of the steps involved in producing their project from start to finish.

Placed between two weekends of PhotoNOLA, the timing of this workshop is ideal for photographers interested in attending the many events and exhibitions that take place during New Orleans' annual celebration of photography.

Topics covered include researching and developing the concept for a book and the important decisions that must be made at each step along the way. For instance, how does one determine a target audience? What publisher is right for you and how do you approach them? Is it better to work with an established publisher, or is it better to self-publish in the bold new world of the digital book?

Melanie covers the basic components of financing, as well as the essentials of distribution ranging from such easily overlooked matters as storage, to the finer points of what is required to get the book on to the dealers' shelves. This workshop is the perfect publishing overview for photographers of all levels.

Tuition: $395

Susan Meiselas, Nicaragua June 1978 - July 1979

Originally published in 1981, Susan Meiselas' Nicaragua is a modern classic--a seminal contribution to the literature of concerned photojournalism. John Berger praised the work for its ability to, "take us right inside a revolutionary moment... Yet unlike most photographs of such material, these refuse all the rhetoric normally associated with such pictures: The rhetoric of violence, revolutionary heroism and the glorification of misery." Nicaragua forms an extraordinary narrative of a nation in turmoil. Starting with a powerful and chilling evocation of the Somoza regime during its decline in the late 1970s, the images trace the evolution of the popular resistance that led to the insurrection, culminating with the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in 1979. The 2008 edition includes Pictures from a Revolution, a DVD (NTSC, Region 1: U.S. and Canada) in which Meiselas returns to the scenes she originally photographed, tirelessly tracking down the subjects and interviewing them about the reality of post-revolution Nicaragua.