Yoke Matze is running a photographic workshop in Marrakech from 18-23 March 2012 for four participants. The workshop is an excellent opportunity to make new work in a creative and exotic environment. March is good month to travel to Marrakech with a comfortable average temperature of about 72 degrees.

Yoke is a founder member of LIP and has been running workshops for LIP and other organisations across the UK for the last 14 years. Yoke is a practising photographer and teacher. She founded YM Photography courses London in 1997. Her work has been exhibited in UK and abroad and you can find Yoke’s work in major photographic collections in the UK and The Netherlands.

For further details see Yoke’s website

Friday evening session includes a presentation by course leaders followed by opportunity to see samples of work from group members. Saturday morning a short session on how to improve your digital capture, understanding histograms and exposures, then field trips into the countryside around Ilam, which includes one of Lord Byron’s favourite beauty spots – Dovedale – with one of the course leaders. Groups will be no more than seven people per tutor. At the end of the day there will be an open feedback session in the seminar room after dinner on your selection of images made during the day. Sunday will be a choice of activity: going out to put some of your feedback advice into practise, gathering for a session on post production and publishing photos or getting a portfolio review with Paul Hill.
Fees: £325 including all tuition and 2 nights full board,
see www.photographersplace.co.uk for details.

Amateurs and Artists: 19th and 21st Century Photography in the South West
A conference organised by Royal Photographic Society, Historical Group
May 13-15, 2011 (in Plymouth)
Early photography in Plymouth is an untold story. Robert Hunt, independent inventor of photographic processes, Richard Beard, the first daguerreotype licensee, Charles Eastlake RA, first RPS president, and Linnaeus Tripe, an early calotypist, were all from Plymouth. Speakers at this conference represent a wide range of photographic expertise: curators, university staff, photohistorians and contemporary photographers, include Carolyn Bloore, Jon Blyth, Colin Ford, Rod Fry, Michael Gray, John Hannavy, Jenny Leathes, Richard Morris, Liz Nicol, Nigel Overton, Matthew Pontin and Jem Southam.

This conference is linked closely to three exhibitions: Amateurs and Artists: Early Photography and Plymouth at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, on display 9th April to 30th July 2011. Out of the Ordinary, a group exhibition of work by members of the RPS, SW Contemporary Group is on display at Sherwell Centre, University of Plymouth, 9th to 27th May 2011. The third exhibition, Chemical Traces, is a response to Amateurs and Artists: Early Photography and Plymouth, and will be on display in Scott Building, University of Plymouth. Tours of these exhibitions form part of the conference on Friday.
Fee: £50.00 plus conference dinner £19.95 per person (optional). For details contact Jenny Ford, Secretary, RPS Historical Group on 01234 881459. Download booking form and menu choice at www.rps.org/events/view/2052

The Camera Club:
Documentary Photography and Visual Storytelling course
June 8 – August 3, 2011
This course is aimed at those who wish to develop their photography skills and produce picture stories creatively. It will be of interest to those who wish to extend their practice and personal direction or to build up a portfolio. Students will be supported through the course to complete a body of work for an online-exhibition. The course is run by Alison Locke who completed postgraduate studies in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at LCC in 1999 and has since worked mainly on long-term documentary projects.
For full details see the Camera Club website

British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies lecture
14th June, 6.45pm at City YMCA, 8 Errol St, London, EC1Y 8LX

Sal Shuel of BAPLA will be making a presentation at City of London & Cripplegate Photographic Society. She will show photographs and discuss what makes one picture saleable and another not. Sal will also offer advice on keyword naming and rights protection. All photographers are welcome to attend. The club has booked a larger hall than normal and simply asks for a contribution of £3 from non-members to help cover the cost.

Paul Hill Workshop
July 16-23, 2011 (in France)
Paul Hill leads another photography workshop in the sunny south of France, in the foothills of the Alps at Sue Fallon’s farmhouse. He will be encouraging participants to look and think through the lens. There will be time for Paul to review previous work with you and new images that you will be taking throughout the week, will be shared with the group. A selection will be made for an informal show at the end of the week. The fee of £495 is inclusive of all tuition and includes full board and accommodation. (There will be an optional extra (cost TBA ) of joining Paul for a couple of days afterwards at the Arles Photography Festival. First takers will get a lift in a car – others may need to come on by train.)
See www.escoulin.com & contact Sue Fallon for booking details on 01435 872856

The Power of Photography: An RPS Contemporary Group event
October 1-2, 2011 (in Birmingham)
This major weekend event will be held at Birmingham City University, Perry Barr campus. Eight internationally known professional photographers will be speaking:
- Zed Nelson, award winning documentary photographer on beauty and how it is treated in the media.
- Susanna Brown, curator at the V&A, on how the museum selects new contemporary photographs for the collection.
- Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, documentary photographer and founder member of the Amber collective, on her work in North-East England
- Tim Smith on his work linking British people with those in other parts of the world.
- Brijesh Patel (LIP member) grew up in London and sees himself as a British-Indian. His environmental photography explores his relationship with India.
- Mitra Tabrizian creates ‘directed’ tableaux which explore corporate culture, values and treatment of individuals by society.
- Dana Popa explores social issues and human rights in her documentary work.
- John Davies, landscape photographer, deals with impacts of industry on the landscape and concerns about how we shape the environments in which we live.
Attendance is open to all, whether or not they are RPS members.
Visit www.rpscontemporary.org/events for more information and booking

Sam Gardener Workshop
October 8-15, 2011 (in France)
For the more rugged, this autumn workshop offers a chance to catch the autumn colours and seasonal fruits, the markets will be full of nuts and mushrooms. There will be a variety of themes running throughout the week and you will be editing and selecting, with Sam’s help, images that will form a book of the week. So, a new skill for those who haven’t already produced a book. The fee will be £425 inclusive.
See www.escoulin.com & contact Sue Fallon for booking details on 01435 872856

Participants stay in a traditional Riad (B&B) in walking distance from the Djamaa El Fna square in the old Medina where you find the souks and kasbahs. Traditional Moroccan evening meals are taken in the Riad or in the many restaurants in the famous Jemaa El Fna square and beyond.

For further details visit Yoke’s website

Greg Lucas: Photography as Speculative Journalism (Talk)
Wednesday, 3rd March at 7.30pm

The Art of Photography with Yoke Matze (Workshop)
Saturday 20th March from 10am-4.30pm

Also there are a few spaces remaining for this April workshop:

Introduction to Large Format Photography with Nick Lockett
Saturday 24th April, 10.30am-4.30pm

Some members may remember or may have attended The Photographers’ Place workshops and master classes, run by Paul and Angela Hill at Bradbourne in the Peak District from 1976-96. As then, this new workshop weekend is intended for the more experienced photographer and includes both technical and aesthetic guidance. Gone are the darkrooms, replaced by sessions on digital post production. You need a high – end compact or SLR and a passion for photography to attend the sessions.

Professor Paul Hill will be there with two other experienced photography tutors, Martin Shakeshaft and Nick Lockett, to ‘eat drink and sleep’ photography for a whole weekend.

For details of the workshop weekend see www.photographersplace.co.uk

Upcoming Talk Wed January 20, 7.30pm
Daniel Meadows: Digital Storytelling
Talks about creating a national portrait of the English and pioneering Digital Storytelling.

Upcoming Workshop Sat February 6, 10.30-5.30pm
Studio Lighting at Photofusion with Paul Ellis
Learn all the basics you need to control studio lighting and construct the pictures you want to make.

Also a number of members of the Contemporary Group of the Royal Photographic Society are longtime LIP members. The Contemprary Group has organised a weekend event in Birmingham upcoming in May:

RPS Contemporary Group Event: Spirit of the Age
A weekend event in Birmingham featuring talks by Ian Beesley, Joy Gregory, Brian Griffin, Tom Hunter, Greg Lucas, Jenny Mathews, Simon Roberts and Helen Sear.

The winning prize of £60k was awarded last night in Paris:

“Kofi Annan, Nobel Laureate and former Secretary General of the United Nations, has awarded this year’s prestigious Prix Pictet photography prize for environmental sustainability to British based photographer Nadav Kander and a photography commission to American photographer Ed Kashi at the Passage de Retz in Paris.

The Prix Pictet is an annual search for photographs that communicate powerful messages of global environmental significance under a broad theme. This year that theme is ‘earth’. Nadav Kander was nominated for his series of photos, Yangtze, The Long River Series, 2006-07, documenting the rapidly changing landscape and communities of China’s Yangtze River, from its mouth to source.”

Source: Click Green

A few participants in Mike Simmons’ September workshop entitled “The Self in Photography” have shared their experience and some selected images they created inspired by the theme. Take a look at the Mike Simmons workshop page to view the results.

Also two new events have been added to the Programme for winter:

Carol Hudson: The Photographic Sequence as it relates to on-line book publishing (Workshop) – Look beyond the single image to consider visual and other narrative forms for self-publishing a photobook. Takes place Saturday, November 28th, 2009 from 10am-4pm.

Daniel Meadows: Digital Storytelling (Talk) – Speaks about creating a national portrait of the English and pioneering Digital Storytelling. Takes place Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 from 7.30pm.

Image above by Virginia Khuri