Five exciting days which will allow you to explore new photographic spaces with simplicity every day, an opportunity for everyone to step out of their comfort zone a little and try new paths, new approaches.

Every day, through concrete instructions and practical advice, Jean-Christophe Béchet will invite participants to develop their practice and their photographic culture through field research and exchanges of experiences, but also through the discovery of several authors.

Four main families, four photographic genres will be explored: street photography, landscape photography, portraits and still life. So many different areas, experienced through simple instructions, which will stimulate everyone's approach. An approach in which one of the challenges will be to gradually develop a personal style, whatever the areas explored.

The five days will be friendly and very practical, in the field but also during the editing sessions. Certain theoretical aspects will be addressed but making sure not to get lost in too many complexities, subtleties, details. The idea being above all that the photographic fields addressed remain "pretexts" to go beyond one's own approach, creating new axes, inviting to new correspondences between the photographs taken, opening new playing fields.

The last day will be largely devoted to the creation of a coherent photographic ensemble which will then be printed and exhibited at the end of the day.


JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BÉCHET
Born in Marseille in 1964, Jean-Christophe Béchet has lived and worked in Paris since 1990. He studied economics and photography at ENSP in Arles before working as a photographer for the press, publishers and galleries. He created the special supplements section for the magazine Réponses Photo and was its editor-in-chief until 2014. Mr. Béchet develops his work one book at a time. Since Marval published “Electric’Cités” in 2002, Trans Photographic Press has come out with 15 monographs of his work, including “Tokyo Station”, “Vues n°0, un manifeste photographique”, “American Puzzle”, “Marseille Ville Natale” and “7 Carnets”. He also wrote Petite Philosophie Pratique de la Prise de vue Photographique (Créaphis). He has just published European Puzzle (Loco) and participated in several shows. Mr. Béchet is represented by “Les Douches, la Galerie” (5, rue Legouvé, Paris 10^th).

Website: Jean-Christophe Béchet

CONTENT
- Presentation of different aspects of photographer as profession
- Presentation of different books by the instructor
- Overview of different steps in realizing a photo project
- Definition of a personal project
- Individual shooting sessions
- First selections and file management on computer
- Editing sessions with the instructor
- Building of a unified series
- One-to-one interview as assessment of the workshop


BRING
- A selection of around 30 images attesting to your practice (preferably on paper/format of your choice)
- Your camera, charger and cables
- 2 or 3 memory cards
- A Mac-compatible hard drive or your computer if you wish
 
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- Face-to-face course
- Location: historic center near the arena
- Mobility: staircase to access the building and several rooms (contact us)
- Number of participants: 8 to 12
- Starts 10am on the first day
- Ends 7pm on the last day, followed by a presentation of the work until 9pm
- Time schedule on the other days: 9:30am-12:30pm and 2:00pm-6:00pm
- Participants can bring their own lunch and eat it on site during the afternoon break.
 
GOALS
- Learn the various steps involved in creating a photo series
- Develop a point of view based on a selection of photographs
 
TEACHING METHOD
- Teaching staff : a professional photographer instructor, helped by an assistant from 6 attenders
- Logistic staff to facilitate shooting sessions (places, material, contacts…)
- Workshop held in both French and English :
Collective parts in French with a translation for non-French speakers.
One-to-one interviews could be in English.
 
EQUIPMENT
- Mac computers
- Contact prints (6x4 in.)
- Studios with various accessories
- Lightening set up (Flashs, LED, Fresnel…)
- Digital camera (on demand)
- A photo library (app. 500 references)
 
EVALUATION
- Private end-of-course interview and evaluation
- The instructor continuously evaluates the personal series
- Oral end-of-course evaluation
 
FORMALISATION AT THE END OF THE COURSE
- End-of-course certificate