Writing for Photographers
London, 20 April 2024
ADDITIONAL DATE ADDED: London, 22 June 2024
Due to the high demand and the incredible interest shown, we're delighted to announce that we've added a second date for this one-day introductory workshop on how to write about your photography. Using interactive examples and exercises, the workshop will examine various forms of writing, the different voices that can be delivered for different purposes, how to start writing, and – ultimately – how to write a convincing and engaging statement about your work.
Throughout the day, you will be encouraged to identify your interests, and to use writing to channel the purpose of your work and to express your voice. You will be given help to write your own personal statement, and get feedback on your writing in one-to-one, 30-minute follow-up sessions at a later date.
On this course you will:
- Find ways to get started with writing
- Develop your own project statement
- Identify the key elements of your work
- Gain insights into how you can use text and image
- Do exercises on how to use writing as a tool for identifying your purpose
- Experiment with how to simplify language and be direct in your writing
- Learn how to engage and interest your audience
- Examine how to adapt your own texts for different audiences
- Get feedback on your writing in a follow-up one-to-one session with a tutor
Taught by
Simon Bainbridge is a writer, editor and educator.
From 2013 until 2020, he was the editorial director at British Journal of Photography, having already helped transform the title from a parochial weekly trade journal into an award-winning international magazine, launching Portrait of Britain and the International Photography Awards along the way. More recently, he was Head of Content at Magnum Photos, and he taught photography at University of Creative Arts and University of Salford, and was the external assessor at the Royal College of Art in The Hague.
In 2020, his first book, Magnum Portraits, was published by Laurence King, and the following year he wrote the forward and interview for Depeche Mode by Anton Corbijn, published by Taschen. Bainbridge has co-curated two exhibitions: Time & Motion Studies: New Documentary Photography Beyond the Decisive Moment, at Hereford Museum & Art Gallery, in 2011, featuring the work of Donald Weber, George Georgiou, Tim Hetherington, Vanessa Winship, Manuel Vasquez and Robbie Cooper; and Paper, Rock, Scissors: The Constructed Image in New British Photography at Flash Ford Festival, Toronto, in 2010, featuring Noemie Goodall, Julia Cockburn, Danny Treacy, Peter Ainsworth, Julia Curtin and Victoria Jenkins.
He has written for titles including The Art Newspaper, l'Uomo Vogue, The Guardian, The RPS Journal, Aperture, LensCulture, Mr Porter and PDN, and has been a judge or nominator for prizes including the Photography Grand Jury Prize at International Festival of Fashion, Photography and accessories - Hyères, Prix Virginia, Star Photobook Dummy Award, Prix Pictet and Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.
Colin Pantall is a writer, educator and photographer.
He has written for a range of publications and organisations across the world including, Magnum Photos, British Journal of Photography, World Press Photo, Foam and Aperture and The Far Eastern Economic Review. He also has a column on self-published photobooks in Source Magazine.
Colin co-wrote and edited Magnum China, wrote the British section for The History of European Photography, and has worked with text and image with photographers including Vincen Beeckman, Tessa Bunney, Amak Mahmoodian and Cat Hyland. He teaches on the Falmouth University Photography MA and runs independent online workshops linking contemporary photography to global, historical, and theoretical perspectives.
His photography focusses on domestic environments and family, and include his books Sofa Portraits, All Quiet on the Home Front, and German Family Album, projects where the conflicting narratives of family, environmental and political histories collide. In 2022, his image, My Parents in Woolley, was acquired for the collection of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag.