It is almost a truism: the world around us is constantly changing, whether we look at the political, economical or personal level. Clearly, words like TRUMP and BREXIT mark a change not only in the political but also in the psychological landscape of people. How can this be photographed? How do you create images that not only depict or describe, but make the viewer feel a shift or transformation?

The masterclass aims to look at the possibilities of communicating “a sense of change“ in an artistic body of work. Today, when anyone is able to produce and share images in real time, it is important to focus on the abilities of the photographer to create stand-out work that truly captures and transmits the mood of a space or the sense of a situation or a person. We will discuss the extended possibilities of contemporary image-making and how this changes our perception of a photograph.

Furthermore, the question of truth and whether a term like this makes sense in today’s world of digital image-making will be an integral part of the debate in the class. The issue in question is how the NOW can be reflected by the artists of today - how, for example, is change being represented in contemporary photographic practice? How is it represented by painters or other artists?

The participants will work on personal series, creating an individual perspective on the changes affecting a certain place, person, political situation or any other phenomena of interest.

Peter Bialobrzeski 

Peter Bialobrzeski studied politics and sociology before he became a photographer for a local paper in his native Wolfsburg, Germany. He travelled extensively in Asia before going on to study photography and design at the Folkwangschule Essen and the London College of Printing. Within the last 16 years he has published fifteen books: XXXholy, NEONTIGERS, HEIMAT, Lost in Transition, Paradise Now, Case Study Homes, Informal Arrangements, The Raw and the Cooked, Nail Houses, Cairo Diary, Athens Diary, Wolfsburg Diary, Taipei Diary, Kochi Diary and most recently Die zweite Heimat. His work has been exhibited in Europe, the USA, Asia, Africa and Australia. He has won several awards, including the prestigious World Press Photo Award 2003 and 2010. Peter Bialobrzeski has been a visiting professor for photojournalism at the University of Essen in 1998/99. Since 2002 Peter is a regular professor for photography at the University of the Arts in Bremen/Germany. He also runs workshops around the world. He is represented by Laurence Miller Gallery in New York, LA Galerie in Frankfurt and also shows with Robert Morat Gallery in Berlin and Hamburg, as well as at the m97 Gallery in Shanghai. In 2012 he was honored with the Erich Salomon Award by the German Society of Photographers (DGPh). 

Often, photographers get stuck in a rut of production – a kind of shopping list process based around their initial idea. This may lead to a lack of experimentation during the making of works for a project, and disconnect between the initial concept and outcome of a piece of work. MacDonaldStrand would like to invite you to play, to experiment and to discover new visual possibilities for your ideas.

This Masterclass is centered on ideas and how to translate them visually. Ideas are key and will be discussed with a dialectical gusto. This Masterclass is ideal for candidates who wish to expand their practice and take it into new and challenging areas, or for those who feel that their work has reached a sticking point and wish to become unstuck. Though this course will involve constant interaction, the shy are encouraged to sign up, as they often have the most interesting things to say. We will be pushing everyone to find new ways of working and of thinking about their working processes through vigorous group and individual sessions. The class is open – the ideas and associated outputs can range from completing a photographic series to developing a stand up comedy routine.

Some of the questions we will consider during the class are:
- Can a 'bad' image be better than a ‘good’ one?
- Who is making the art, the subject or the photographer?
- What is the difference between taking and making a photograph? 
- What’s the difference between an idea and a subject?
- Can one make work as a by-product of doing something else?
- Do we need photographers when we have Google?
- Can the act of Tweeting help us edit better?
- Is the Metaphorical superior to the Literal?
- Can quantity be better than quality?
- Can work choose us rather than we choose it?
- Do we need to answer questions or do we need to question answers?

MacDonaldStrand

MacDonaldStrand are the collaborative partnership of Gordon MacDonald and Clare Strand. MacDonaldstrand’s combined backgrounds are grounded in an understanding of a varied and multidisciplinary approach to the photographic medium. Together and independently they have made and published books, curated exhibitions and festivals, edited magazines, made machines and web programmes, performed balancing acts, and travel the MacDonaldStrand Photo Pub Quiz to worldwide venues.

Gordon MacDonald is a curator, writer, artist and publisher based in Brighton, England. MacDonald was founding Editor of Photoworks magazine (UK), co-founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Brighton Photo Fringe (2003–2014), and was founder and Director of GOST Books (London, UK) until 2016. Gordon has curated many exhibitions, including the main programme of Krakow Photomonth in 2017. This year he judges for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, 2018.

Clare Strand works with photography. Strand’s constantly evolving practice brings together intensive research, deadpan humour and insights into popular culture, shifting from the mysterious and the absurd to understanding public obsessions, often via trickery and manipulation. Recent exhibited work includes machines to encourage entropy, web programs, looped films, Fairground stalls and intricate photographic constructions focusing on, subverting, reimagining and manipulating the medium’s origins. Strand's work is held in the collections of Arts Council England; The National Collection; The British Council; The Folkwang Museum; The Unicredit Bank; The New York Library; The Victoria and Albert Museum; The Centre Pompidou and most recently MoMA New York, The Mead Museum, Massachusetts and The Billie Verhagen Art Collection, The Hague. There are three publications Clare Strand Monograph published by Stedil (2007), Skirts published by GOST (2013) and most recently Girl Plays with Snake published by MACK (2017).