Summer Workshop 2014 • July 27 – August 2
'Telling a story through a human portrait' with Rena Effendi
Rena Effendi about the workshop:
"In this class I would like to discuss various ways of working on a social, environmental and psychological portrait – be it a portrait of one person or a group and community. We will talk about approaching or sometimes confronting a stranger, building close rapport with your subject, breaking down the barriers of communication. Portrait assignments are very common in the magazine world and in class we’ll discuss the elements constituting a successful portrait. I would like to push the boundaries of traditional understanding of portraiture. I will share both examples from my own experience and work of other photographers that have a non-traditional photographic vision and approach to storytelling. In my own work I am most interested in portraying humanity through stories of daily life, i.e. portraying a complex global issue through a personal story. We will discuss ways of developing a theme for a long-term documentary project outside the fast pace of news-oriented media. In class we will also discuss building and presenting a professional portfolio for audiences in the wider photographic industry. We will critique work that is both new, shot for the class assignment, as well as student’s portfolio of previous work. Additionally, I will share my own experiences of working on a long-term personal project, ways of funding such projects outside of traditional media support, such as grants, competitions and other possibilities that exist outside the editorial world. In class the students will learn about the following:
Elements constituting a successful portrait of an individual or a group
Building a visual narrative using various styles, both traditional reportage and other ways of expressing through photography
Editing, sequencing your story/portfolio for a greater visual impact
Introduction to the international photographic industry, discussing career-building opportunities"
BIOGRAPHY - RENA EFFENDI
Born in 1977 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Rena Effendi grew up in the USSR – witnessing her country’s rough path to independence, one marred by war, political instability and economic collapse. The chaotic 1990s strongly impacted the way Effendi perceives photography, as she attempted to make visual sense of the fragile world that surrounded her. Educated as a linguist, she took her first photographs in 2001 while she was attending painting classes.
Between 2002-2008 Effendi followed a 1,700 km pipeline through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey documenting the impact this multi-billion dollar project had on the impoverished farmers, fishermen and other citizens. This six-year journey became her first monograph – Pipe Dreams: A Chronicle of Lives Along the Pipeline, published by Schilt Publishing. This project, funded by the Getty Images Editorial Grant received numerous awards including: the Fifty Crows Photography Award, the Magnum Foundation Caucasus Photographer Award, and the Mario Giacomelli Memorial Fund Award.
From 2007 Rena Effendi has been photographing in the post-Soviet region, as well as Turkey and Iran, including the 2008 Russia – Georgia conflict, women victims of heroin and sex trafficking in Kyrgyzstan and female survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which in 2012 was short-listed for the Prix Pictet Award in Photography and Sustainability. In 2011 Effendi became the laureate of the Prince Claus Fund Award for Cultural Development and moved to Cairo where she focused on issues surrounding the Egyptian Christian community with funding from the Magnum Foundation Emergency grant.
In 2013, Schilt Publishing released Rena Effendi’s second monograph “Liquid Land”, a personal narrative, combining her father’s photographs of rare Azerbaijani butterflies with her images of environmentally devastated landscapes and people living among destruction in her native city of Baku.
Rena Effendi’s work has been exhibited world wide and published in the New Yorker, National Geographic, Newsweek, The Sunday Times, Marie Claire, Courrier International, Le Monde, and others.
to find out more about the workshop click here
to view Rena's features and tearsheets click here