BAZAAR

HOT LISTBazaarIn the last 11 years, the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop has travelled all over theworld, from Mexico, Argentina, and Thailand in its early years to Sarajevo, Guatemala,and South Africa. Each year it camps at a different continent. In 2008, the team hadconducted a workshop in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, and this July, it returns to India,heading to Kolkata.Foundry is the brainchild of American photographer Eric Beecroft. He set up thenon-profit organisation in 2007, when he wondered why “good photojournalismeducation was not accessible and affordable for people in their home countries?”Beecroft started out by writing to some of the most iconic photo journalists of our timeand asking if they would volunteer to teach. “Now, everysingle year, we have too many instructors wanting tocome,” says Beecroft.The week-long workshop is taught and attended by thelikes of Ron Haviv who has documented humanitariancrises for magazines like Fortune, The New York TimesMagazine, and Time; Andrea Bruce, whose work regularlyappears inThe Washington Post, National Geographic Magazine,and The Guardian, is also a regular. For their workshop inKolkata, they have roped in photographers like PrashantPanjiar, Dar Yasin, Ashima Narain, Smita Sharma, MansiMidha, and Mustafa Quraishi.Students come from all walks of life. “There arephotographers, journalists, students, and just aboutanyone interested in photography, but from a humanpoint of view. Our oldest student so far has been 70 andthe youngest was 12 years old,” says Beecroft. While itmay seem that photo journalism veers towards darksubjects of war and conflict, “we don’t go about pickingwar zones,” says Beecroft. The focus is on visualstorytelling and the themes are diverse. “We’ve hadpeople tell stories of clowns, birthday parties, a dogcatcher. Maggie Steber, an award-winning photographerand one of our instructors, did a beautiful photo storyon sleep for the National Geographic. Now how do youshoot something like that?” asks Beecroft.“What I hope the students take away from this is theability to understand the power of an image. To quoteAmerican photographer Dorothea Lange: ‘The camerais an instrument that teaches people how to see withouta camera’,” says Beecroft.foundryphotoworkshop.orgTHE TRAVELLING LENSHow to tell powerful stories through images? Learn fromaward-winning teachers at the Foundry PhotojournalismWorkshop, which comes to Kolkata this month.``````Photographs by Ashima Narain taken during atrek to Roopkund, Uttarakhand, India``````PHOTOGRAPHY