BazanPhotos | Student Photography Galleries | 2004| Group One Layered Image

Photography by Ernesto Bazan

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Group One Layered Image

Never before like now, words such as ordinary and one-layered-picture have been so painful and at the same time so meaningful to me.
What is that make you stay in a workshop after you hear on the first day that your images are flat and too literal?
It comes to mind an answer: the gift of teaching.

How many times do we hear a teacher saying the same things: “Ordinary and one-layered image?”

It’s something that I have heard other photographers saying it before, but probably not everybody has the power to transmit it, or maybe it wasn’t the right moment, or maybe I wasn’t ready. And then out of the blue, life puts you in the right place and frequency.

For me it’s super important feeling inspired. It has been wonderful to have had the chance to meet up with you Ernesto, because you are so passionate about photography and the intensity of your way of living is very contagious. I believe that I’m not mistaken in saying that you inspired all of us to have the enthusiasm and the patience necessary to take pictures every day. It has been special having been part of this group in which we all felt we were accomplices from the very first photos we took to the last editing session.

I believe that the best ting that happened is that you helped us open our eyes. It seems such a big accomplishment as well as the life experience that we all lived.

I believe that if we manage to live photographs will come. This is something that you will always be grateful for.

I feel a strong compromise now to show you the next pictures I’ll take. I hope there will be some multi-layered images.

Eloisa Nisimura

On my way out the door to catch my flight to San Miquel de Allende I decided to throw my Diana in my camera bag. I had picked up the 1960s plastic camera at a local estate sale for five dollars earlier in the summer. I wanted to take it along as my extra camera for my own travel photographs and just for fun while I was in Mexico for my black and white film workshop with Ernesto Bazan.

For the first few days of the workshop I shot with my Nikon N80 and also shot a few 120 rolls with the Diana. During the daily critiquing sessions with our workshop group and Ernesto it seemed my Diana prints had a more interesting, more mysterious look than the multiple stacks of prints I had shot with the N80. After a couple of these critiquing sessions Ernesto encouraged me to shoot only with the Diana for the remainder of the workshop. For the rest of the week I used the five dollar Diana for my primary camera. The camera looks like a toy, is small and unobtrusive, and no one takes you too seriously when you raise it to eye level.

My prints in this book were all taken with the Diana camera. For me, the prints have vintage appeal and the look of an old snapshot. Hopefully, through my plastic lens, I captured the essence and grace I saw that is old Mexico.

Kay Price

Fifteen hours of car/plane/bus travel and I reached the eclectic town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The next morning, I walked into town to get a feel for Mexican life. I could see my breath in the air as my ankles wobbled on the cobblestone streets. Children in blue and white uniforms passed on their way to school. The city bus swallowed the narrow streets with its size and noise. Clouds of steam rose above the food carts parked for business. The movement of Mexican life seemed so enchanting and beautiful yet mysterious and foreign to my usual way of doing things.

I knew this would be an experience that I would not soon forget. What I didn’t expect, were the indelible memories of Mexican culture and faith, my friends in the “One Layer Picture Group”, and the contagious spirit of our teacher Ernesto Bazan. These memories live on through our collective photographs, in our hearts and in our spirits as we remember the time spent searching out the special moments that make up this book.

My photos of San Miguel Allende, which represent faith, devotion, and hard work, are dedicated to my grandfather Richard Marcellous Harrison. He has taught me the art of perseverance-to never give up against all odds. He has proven that anything is possible with faith, hard work and generosity towards others. Most of all, his giving heart has encouraged and guided me throughout my journeys.

With love Lizzie Thompson

The workshop in San Miguel, Mexico, with renowned photographer and teacher Ernest Bazan, was the most memorable week in my photographic life. Wandering the beautiful, cobblestone streets of the vibrant colonial town and looking for this magical moment was arduous mission, in addition, meeting Ernesto’s expectation was a challenge.

I was anxious to confront Ernesto Bazan, world celebrated brilliant photographer, who is honored with prestigious awards. It was a privilege to meet a humble man, an exceptional human being. Ernesto opened his heart and mind sharing his profound knowledge and love of photography.

Ernesto determination to elevate our ability and increase competence in photography to higher level was astonishing. At the same time, his encouragement and confidence in our skills made us feel enthusiastic and eager to go beyond expectation.
Ernesto trained my eyes to look for the special photo – instead of pretty picture; he introduced the concept of "true street photography" and demonstrated how minor elements make it a distinctive picture.

The photography will never be the same for me after this exceptional week in San Miguel.

Ludmila Ketslash

Working with Ernesto Bazan was one of the most enlightening and, in many respects, difficult experiences in the many years I have attended workshops.

Ernesto is both a wonderful teacher and a very demanding artist. He set very high standards for the class and maintained those standards throughout the week. He was constructive in his critiques without being demeaning. I learned a great deal about differences in style and vision from him. I also learned a considerable insight into my own sense of what I wanted to convey through making pictures. I concluded that I am more of a documentary photographer who sees and records what is apparent without interpretation or consideration of the extra added element that makes the picture a story. Rather than being disheartened I came away with new knowledge about what makes a picture more than an ordinary record of a moment in time.

I have attended more than 10 workshops. Ernesto's was particularly unique in the way he involved the entire class in the process of editing both one's own work but the group's as a whole. He is the only teacher, in my experience, who involved the class is making final decisions on work to be part of the final nights presentation. Many times the group disagreed with Ernesto and he was gracious enough to accept the consensus. This one experience, learning how to edit a body of work, was a seminal event for me.

The opportunity to work with a very creative and caring group photographers was exciting. I learned a great deal from my mates. One special note. I reconnected with a friend Vidal Berrones who was also in the class. Vidal is a man for all seasons, a good friend and a great photographer.

Sandy Luger

© Tom Price 6 of 6

To photograph is to see the world anew. Periodically, I must leave the creative world of others that I have found in the rehearsals of performance groups and venture out into a new space where my “tricks” no longer work. It is a wonderland there, but how to capture its magic and its grit. A little past kindergarten--more like third grade. You think you know what you are doing, but you really don’t.

The Santa Fe Workshop in San Miguel de Allende brought together a few of us third graders. This was the fourth workshop I’ve attended and the friendships and camaraderie that bind you for that week last in memory if not in person. Could Sandy really have spent that many hours and rolls of film on the workers of Guanajuato? Or maybe there was a cantina nearby that the rest of us missed? In all the workshops I’ve attended the most memorable person was “the leader.” And each gave a unique gift. The gift from Ernesto was seeing in order to edit--a very precious gift.

I will remember the magic of San Miguel that many who have visited there or wished to visit there conceive it to be. However, the strongest of my memories will always be the people of San Miguel. Coming down on foot from the Mercado on the hill to discover the neighborhood around Templo de San Francisco. Later to be in the parish church of San Juan de Dios and hear the children in the parish school outside. To walk past and into some of the commercial buildings on Highway 51-- unfortunately the Modelo brewery was closed. But THE memory will always be the “neighborhood defender” and his drinking buddies whom I had a long talk with after I had crossed Arroyo La Cachinchis into his San Miguel.

To photograph is to see the world anew, but sometimes it is a new.

Thomas Price

To study photography with Ernesto Bazan is not just clicking the shutter. I learned to see life through my camera. I also developed hidden qualities: to see, to observe, to search, and to wait, to learn. Only if I had the time I’d release the shutter.

I remember the critique and the editing sessions every morning were very interesting…
One morning as Ernesto was editing another student’s work, I asked him what was the relation in the photograph between the horses out in the countryside and some children running in a park. “ I do not see the sequence”, I said.

And Bazan with the simplicity and tranquility that characterize him replied: “Life, my brother. Simply life”.

Vidal Berrones