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In the last 11 years, the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop has travelled all over the

world, 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 had

conducted 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 the

non-profit organisation in 2007, when he wondered why “good photojournalism

education 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 time

and asking if they would volunteer to teach. “Now, every

single year, we have too many instructors wanting to

come,” says Beecroft.

The week-long workshop is taught and attended by the

likes of Ron Haviv who has documented humanitarian

crises for magazines like Fortune, The New York Times

Magazine, and Time; Andrea Bruce, whose work regularly

appears inThe Washington Post, National Geographic Magazine,

and The Guardian, is also a regular. For their workshop in

Kolkata, they have roped in photographers like Prashant

Panjiar, Dar Yasin, Ashima Narain, Smita Sharma, Mansi

Midha, and Mustafa Quraishi.

Students come from all walks of life. “There are

photographers, journalists, students, and just about

anyone interested in photography, but from a human

point of view. Our oldest student so far has been 70 and

the youngest was 12 years old,” says Beecroft. While it

may seem that photo journalism veers towards dark

subjects of war and conflict, “we don’t go about picking

war zones,” says Beecroft. The focus is on visual

storytelling and the themes are diverse. “We’ve had

people tell stories of clowns, birthday parties, a dog

catcher. Maggie Steber, an award-winning photographer

and one of our instructors, did a beautiful photo story

on sleep for the National Geographic. Now how do you

shoot something like that?” asks Beecroft.

“What I hope the students take away from this is the

ability to understand the power of an image. To quote

American photographer Dorothea Lange: ‘The camera

is an instrument that teaches people how to see without

a camera’,” says Beecroft.

foundryphotoworkshop.org

THE TRAVELLING LENS

How to tell powerful stories through images? Learn from

award-winning teachers at the Foundry Photojournalism

Workshop, which comes to Kolkata this month.

Photographs by Ashima Narain taken during a

trek to Roopkund, Uttarakhand, India

PHOTOGRAPHY