Life and Death – Oaxaca – Mexico

Before falling in love with Cuba, Oaxaca used to be one of my favorite photo destinations. Its untouched beauty with its well-preserved colonial architecture and the vivid life in and around the city has made me decide to create a new workshop there. The city, that offers a delightful dry climate all year-round, is a very fertile and fascinating place to take pictures.

We will have plenty of time and opportunities to photograph Mexican daily life at large and the intimate celebrations for the Day of the Dead that will last from the night of the 31st of October through the whole day of the 1st of November. In our daily outing will walk around the city searching for significant moments. We'll also take busses to the small towns near Oaxaca to photograph the colorful local markets and the constant flow of daily life.

As in all the other workshops I teach, my ultimate goal is to help each participant to create an appealing body of work with personal strong individual images. Each student will be encouraged to develop his or her own photographic language and to search for the invisible thread that ties a story together. I’ll help you to improve your ability to see and create new photographs, to discover your hidden potential. It will definitely be a valuable educational experience where you will develop the skills to look at your own work more critically, to appreciate and discuss yours and other people’s work by learning a new visual vocabulary. Our final objective is to produce a series of revealing, lasting images that will display a sense of the place, of its people and traditions. You will return home with a new commitment to your work and your creativity.

For the ones of you who came to Cuba and experienced my teaching, I'll simply add that it will be another great learning experience where we'll share both photography and life.

The afternoon of the first day, we will have the first group meeting where we will discuss all the logistic aspects and prepare for the next day shooting. At night, you will be my guests at a typical Mexican restaurant.

Everyday you will shoot both in the morning and afternoon. Viewing, editing and critiquing of your photographs will take place on a daily basis. I'll have a one-to-one meeting with each participant where we will look at your work and select the best images. We'll also look at prints and have group discussions on everybody's work. I will spend quality time with each one you both during the critique sessions and on our daily photographic outings.

I'll also carefully review all your portfolios. Some nights, at the beautiful Centro Fotografico Manuel Alvarez Bravo (just a few blocks from our hotel) will look at other photographers' work and we will discuss photo books. I'll also show some my work from Cuba and other Latin American countries that will include my most recent color images.

Accommodation
We'll be staying in a very quaint old colonial hostal just a few blocks away from the Zocalo, Oaxaca's main square. It has a great shadowy patio where we'll be having our daily meetings.

Travel
Oaxaca is easily reached by plane from the States through Mexico City. Several daily flights are available. Check with your travel agent or with the airlines for the most convenient way to get there. You will be arriving to Oaxaca in the late morning of the first day of the workshop and return to the US on the morning of the following morning of the last day of the workshop.

Meals
Food is simply great and rather inexpensive. Expect to pay no more than $30 a day for meals.

Film
The best film to bring is traditional B&W film Kodak Tri-x, Ilford HP5 or Fuji Neopan 1600 asa for low light situations. For color enthusiasts I advise color negative film by Kodak or Fuji with C41 processing. All digital cameras are welcome.

Internet access
Internet cafes are all over the city. The usual charge is 5 pesos for half an hour, 10 pesos for an hour.

Refund Policy
I rely on your attendance to organize many of the workshops’ logistics, so if for any reason you decide to no longer attend the workshop, please notify me at least 60 days before the start of the workshop. At that time I will refund your full deposit. If you cancel between 30 and 60 days before the start of the workshop I will retain $200 as a cancellation fee. If notification is made less than 30 days before the start of the workshop no monies will be refunded to you.

Please note that in case of exceptional and unforeseeable circumstances such as hurricanes, earthquakes, major floods, tsunami, a war or governments' change of policies in the countries I teach courses, BazanPhotos will only offer as a refund a new workshop in any of the other venues during that same calendar year. No other forms of refunds will be available.

For further information on the workshops and the cost of the 10-day workshop please write to workshops@bazanphotos.com or ernesto_bazan@hotmail.com

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