Tuesday 27th April 2010

Arrive in Dubrovnik, Croatia, get yourself settled in your accommodation.At 17.00 welcome drinks will be served at War Photo Limited followed by an Introduction dinner. Meet the rest of the group plus Wade Goddard, Filip Horvat, Jason Howe and Eric Bouvet (see biographies below).

Wednesday 28th April

Morning - Organizers and teachers will present their work and field questions about how and why they did what they did. We’ll talk about our experiences covering conflict from the Balkans to Afghanistan, Iraq and several other undesirable places.

Afternoon - You will present your portfolio to the group, we will discuss with the group strengths, weaknesses and possible directions you may like to take your work.

Eric and Jason will cover topics including editing, portfolios, getting into the business of photojournalism, compiling a photo story, approaching an editor. Portfolio reviews.

Thursday 29th April

Photo Assignment - An early start, we will head to the city of Mostar in Bosnia, which is a 2 and a half hour drive from Dubrovnik. Once divided along ethnic lines this small city was ravished by intense fighting between Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims. The frontline still very visible today and runs though the center of the town. You will be set a one day magazine assignment exercise to cover the “reunification or lack of” between the two sides.

Once the light has gone (6-7pm) we will head to the Island of Prvic, journey time approximately 4 hours.

Friday 30th April

Assignment review, with the aid of the teachers you will put together your assignment, workflow from camera download to finished presentation

Field medic training; what to expect and what to do with combat injuries; risk management in a conflict zone.

Saturday 1st , Sunday 2nd May

Simulated Combat Assignment - You will be asked to photograph a simulated conflict of two opposing armed groups. Approximately 20 men, many former soldiers and defenders of the region, dressed in uniform, armed with Air Soft weapons (these weapons look like really firearms - M16s and AK 47s but fire small plastic pallets). Though they cannot cause you any harm, they do hurt a little if hit at close range. This will give you the sense danger that exists in a real theatre of war.

Key skills to come out of this will be:

• to shoot soldiers in action moving quickly,

• adapting to changing lighting conditions

• communication with armed combatants in a language you do not understand

• how to stay safe in a fast moving event

• how to shoot interesting images in high pressure and frightening environment

Evening BBQ - An opportunity to get feedback from the guys from the conflict simulation on what they made of you, how you made them feel as well as constructive feedback on your performance and results from the teaching team.

Monday 3rd May

Morning - A morning of final reviews and edits, color corrections, preparing your story for presentation to the group, as you would present it to an editor.

Afternoon - Series of one to one meetings with the teaching staff in which they give you feedback on your experience to date, your performance on the course and you ambitions. All this together designed to give you the best advice for the next step in your career.



Visiting lectures

ERIC BOUVET

www.ericbouvet.com

   

Born in 1961, Eric began his photographic career at the age of 20 after studying art and graphic industries in Paris. His interest in photography was sparked when, at the age of 8, he watched the first live television images of the Apollo 11 mission landing on the moon. It was then that he realized the importance of news and historic moments, not to mention capturing them on film.

Bouvet worked as a staff photographer at the French photo agency Gamma during the 1980s, and launched his freelance career in 1990. He first won international recognition with his 1986 pictures of the rescue efforts in the aftermath of a volcano eruption in Omeyra, Colombia. Since then, Bouvet has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Chechnya, Sudan, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Lebanon, and Israel, Northern Ireland, Kurdistan, Suriname and Burundi.

He has covered major international events including the funeral of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Prague’s Velvet Revolution, the U.S. attack on Libya, the release of Nelson Mandela, and various Olympic Games. He has also worked on many ‘society’ stories including life in Russian jails, young sailors on aircraft carriers, French police working in the Paris suburbs, France’s last coal miners, and life at a pediatric clinic for children with cancer. His work has been published in many international magazines including Time, Life, Newsweek, Paris-Match, Stern, and The Sunday Times Magazine. He has also led photographic campaigns for various NGOs and charities including Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), International Red Cross, Medicines du Monde (MDM) and Action Against Hunger (ACF).

Along the way, Bouvet has received five World Press Awards, as well as the Visa d’Or, the Prix Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents, and the Prix Paris-Match 2000 Award. Since 1990, Bouvet has been working as an independent photojournalist.

 

JASON HOWE

www.conflictpics.co.uk

   

Self-taught photographer Jason P. Howe was born in Ipswich, England in 1971. His passion for photography began at school and survived 10 years working in photographic retail. During these years he expanded his technical knowledge and made his first visits to Latin America. After a decade of travel in the region varying from a few weeks up to a year at a time, Jason has had opportunity to work in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. In late 2001 Jason had began concentrating on reportage and documentary assignments. In late 2002 he was invited to join World Picture News one of their original contract photographers.

Between December 2003 & February 2005 Jason spent over 13 months in Iraq covering daily news and features for World Picture News clients. He documented the war in Lebanon in 2006 and has also made visits to Afghanistan, most recently in 2007 to cover combat operations against the Taliban in the volatile Helmand province. Other assignments and stories have taken him to the Middle and Far East as well as S.E Asia. Jason is currently spending 6 months of the year based in Kabul, Afghanistan and splitting the remaining time between Europe and SE Asia.

Jason has worked extensively for: The New York Times, The Times of London, The Daily Telegraph & The Sunday Telegraph, he has worked on assignments for a variety of news magazines throughout Europe and the USA His images and photo essays have been published in magazines & newspapers around the world.

Images from his project on Conflict in Colombia earned him an Award of Excellence, an exhibition with Amnesty International and a screening at ‘Visa Pour L’Image 2007 in Perpignan, and the 11th annual Festival of Photojournalism in Gijón Spain.