|
|
The Amazon Adventure -Iquitos, Peru
For many years I was longing to get to know Iquitos, the Peruvian outpost before the huge expanses of the Amazon. I had seen some intriguing and mysterious images taken by other photographers. I had a gut feeling that it had to be a special place to photograph. When I finally went just a few weeks ago, I really loved being there; taking pictures and simply let the atmosphere of the place sink in. It has opened new uncharted territories in my Latin American photographing probing.
Founded in 1757 by the Jesuits, Iquitos has a very special charm retaining something of a frontier feel. While walking around you’ll get a definite sense that you are in a very unique place, you will feel a distinctive atmosphere of having stepped back into a sort of XXI century Far West. The people are very friendly and welcoming and love to be photographed.
We will be staying in Iquitos for the first seven days taking pictures of daily life in this fascinating city and some of the outlying villages.
All participants are advised to arrive to Lima at least one day before the workshop begins to get some needed rest and acclimate yourself. We will be catching the plane to Iquitos early the following morning.
Our first meeting will take place the day before the workshop begins in the hall of the hotel in Lima where we will be also staying the last three nights upon our return from Iquitos. If you wish, I can make a reservation for this additional night in Lima for you.
Once we arrive to our hotel in Iquitos, we will have breakfast. After that you will have an hour to rest before Ill start showing you around town.
Each morning, in small groups, we’ll go out shooting on the streets of this fascinating town. I’ll take you to the amazing waterfront district of Belèn. Besides its spectacular floating markets, I’ll take you to meet some of the locals. We might have the opportunity to get into people’s houses and delve more into their life.
Other fantastic shooting locations are some of the harbors where hundred of people are daily loading and unloading products from the many boats that travel along the Amazon. It’s an incredible spectacle and a very special photographic opportunity. We will be able to get onto the boats and also photograph the passengers preparing their hammocks for the long river journeys to Brazil and Colombia.
Some other days, we will visit, by taking taxis and boat taxis some outlying villages. We will have the opportunity to photograph and share the villagers’ daily life.
One of the main aspects of this workshop will be to show how globalization, modernity and many other factors are contaminating people’s life. I feel that contamination is part of the evolution process and it’s unavoidable, although it’s not necessarily all-negative from my perspective
I’ll take you to visit the Boras ethnic group that is going through a process of readjustment. Forced out from their original land in Colombia because of the current war, they have gone through several stages of resettling in Peru.
We will visit one of their communities where for a small fee they perform some traditional dances. When I was there, I had the opportunity to engage myself in very interesting conversations about their ancient roots. By being with them for a while, they started treating me more as a visitor rather than just a tourist. I still have vivid memories of the experience and I look forward to sharing it with all my students.
One the 6th day of the workshop, I’ll take you to an out of town trip to give a glimpse of the real Amazon. We will travel by boat to a lodge along the bank of the river Momon. During the 45 minutes boat ride you will get a chance to see the pink dolphins swim by your side. We will explore a true Amazonian forest; visit some other tribes living in the area. We will spend the night in a beautiful lodge. The next morning after having a nice breakfast the lodge’s boat will return us to Iquitos . If you are not too tired, we will have a few additional afternoon hours to shoot some more in town.
During these seven days in Iquitos, we will primarily concentrate in seeking out the essence of daily life in its myriad nuances. With the same enthusiasm and honesty, I will help all of you capture some of those little surprises that photography constantly gives to us as gifts.
On a daily basis, we will walk together around the corners of this palpitating city; we will photograph the flow of life unfolding before our very eyes in Iquitos and in the surrounding pueblos full of mystery and magic.
During the workshop I will show you my work from my upcoming book Cuba and other different bodies of work from Latin America. We will have the opportunity to analyze and critically discuss all of them.
We will also find time to enjoy the music, the culture and the charm of this fascinating town.
After the first five days of shooting, all the film will be shipped by plane to Lima where the color and b&w custom labs will be processing it. Most of the rolls will be ready to be edited by the time we arrive in Lima.
After seven days in Iquitos, we will fly back to Lima where we will spend the last three days of the workshop editing all the analogical images taken by the students.
For the digital shooters daily editing will take place while in Iquitos except for the final edit.
In the three final days, we will devote ourselves to editing, critiquing and selecting the best images taken by each student.
Every day, we will have both one-on-one editing sessions and group meetings in which the whole class will discuss many photography topics such as framing, composition and content within the context of individual images.
At the end of the workshop, we will choose the best images of each student. With your permission, the best images taken by each participant will be selected to be included on students’ gallery section in my web page.
For those of you that have already had the opportunity to take a workshop with me, I'll only add that you are in for another great learning experience, we’ll be sharing both photography and life.
As in all the other workshops I teach, my ultimate goal is to help each participant 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, and to discover your hidden potential. It will definitely be a valuable educational experience where I’ll teach you to develop the skills to look at your own work more critically, and also 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 and of its people. You will return home with a new commitment to your work and your creativity.
Please remember to arrive to Lima at least a day before the workshop starts to get some rest and help the jet lag disappears. We will leave the next morning early for Iquitos. You need to take the yellow fever vaccination a month before you come.
All my courses are open to both analogical and digital photographers. If you are shooting digital, just make sure to bring your own laptop to view and edit all your images on a daily basis.
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 where workshops are taught 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
|
