An exceptional workshop in Slovenia with Klavdij Sluban, a French photographer of Slovenian origin, renowned internationally. He has been exhibiting and conducting photography workshops in France and around the world for the last 20 years. His growing reputation has prompted world-class photo festivals like Les Rencontres d'Arles to invite him back every year for the last twelve years to teach at its famous international photography workshops. Always willing to share his experience and knowledge on contemporary art and documentary photography, Klavdij has given workshops all over the world, including countries like Slovenia, the USA (Harvard University), Estonia, Spain (Circulo de Bellas Artes), Italy, Japan, Haiti, Central America, Indonesia, China...
East To East Photography
Tereza Kozinc and Klavdij Sluban founded «East To East Photography» to spread photography as a visual language. Workshops are being held in Central and Eastern Europe countries. By using intuition and inner feelings author photography is developed as a contemporary writing. Each participant expresses one's personal way of photographing inspired by the central and eastern atmosphere.
Specificity of the workshop
This workshop consists of developing one's personal photographic writing throughout a unique exploration of Slovenia. Klavdij Sluban's capacity of sharing and transmitting photography helps each participant to find their skills as an author. Photographing outdoors will be followed by everyday sessions of editing, main pillar to build a coherent and meaningful series.
Slovenia laying in South Central Europe is a mix of traditional culture and modern way of life. At the same time, Nature is a main asset : in 2016, Slovenia was declared the world's first green country by the European Commission Green Destinations.
The specificity of the workshop consists of fully taking care of the participants during the whole time of the workshop, from airport to airport (or any other arriving point in Ljubljana), including accommodation, meals, transport, printing of the photos (contact proofs and archival prints). Accommodation and editing sessions will be located in the center of Ljubljana, the capital.
The unexpected diversity of Slovenia affords the possibility to photograph places off the beaten tracks. The capital is a perfect base to be explored as well as to visit the rest of the country within an hour's drive. Ljubljana is best beloved for being walkable all around. The hospitality and kindness of its inhabitants makes encounters and street photography, as well as portrait, pleasant. Ljubljana and older cities have historic influences by Baroque (Austrian) and Roman (Italian) architectures. Morning open market, splendid Art Nouveau banks, paved streets, outdoor restaurants and live music bars make it as charming as picturesque. Besides the main spots like the Triple Bridge, the castle oversewing the city or such places like Metelkova, a military camp of the former Yugoslav army, which has developed into a vivid underground and art district that comes to life at night.
All of these contrasts and different atmospheres will guide to a more personal and inward-looking photographic interpretation.
Main contemporary photographic genres will be focused on. Landscape will be seen through urban as well as nature environments.
A train trip along the river Sava will show a hidden Slovenia, gigantic factories and the effects of post industrialization. Lake Bohinj and its wild surroundings will be explored. A stop will be made at Lake Bled, a natural wonder.
Klavdij Sluban's knowledge of Slovenia, born in Paris, he spent his childhood in Livold, a village in Lower Carniola, gives this workshop a unique way to discover or know better the country of his origins. Speaking the language, he is fully committed in the country's art scene. Since 2014 he has been leading a Masterclass with young Slovenian photographers.
Tereza Kozinc and Klavdij Sluban
Tereza Kozinc is a Slovenian photographer living between Ljubljana and Paris, born in 1985. She studied at the Institute and Academy of Multimedia in Ljubljana and graduated in Multimedia. Tereza's documentary and intuitive work has been shown in such leading museums, festivals and galleries as the Rencontres d'Arles (Voies Off), the Benaki Museum in Athens, the Terragona SCAN Photo Festival in Spain, the Schmiede International Multimedia Festival in Austria, Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana, KUD France Prešeren, Mizzart Gallery in AKC Metelkova City Ljubljana, the Fine Art UGM Gallery in Maribor, Slovenia.
Klavdij Sluban is a French photographer of Slovenian origin, born in Paris in 1963. Artist of the year in South Korea, 2017, winner of the European Publishers Award for Photography 2009, of the Leica Award (2004) and of the Niépce Prize (2000) (the main French award in photography). He has been exhibiting and conducting photography workshops in France and around the world for the last 20 years. Sluban has developed a rigorous and coherent body of work, nourished by literature, never inspired by immediate and sensational current affairs, making him one of the most interesting photographers of his generation. The Balkans, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caribbean, Central America, Russia, China and the Antarctic (first artistic mission in the Kerguelen Islands) can be read as many successive steps of an in-depth study of a patient proximity to the encountered real. His images have been shown in such leading institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Photography of Tokyo, The Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Rencontres d'Arles, The Museum of Photography in Helsinki, the Fine Arts Museum in Canton, Musée Beaubourg, The Museum of Texas Tech University, the Museum of Photography, South Korea, among others. In 2013, the Musée Niépce showed a retrospective of Klavdij Sluban's work, After Darkness, 1995-2012.
His many books include East to East (published simultaneously by Actes Sud, Dewi Lewis, Petliti, Braus, Apeiron & Lunwerg with a text by Erri de Luca), Entre Parenthèses, (Photo Poche, Actes Sud), Transverses, (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) and Balkans-Transit, with a text by François Maspero (Seuil).
Since 1995, Sluban has been photographing teenagers in jails and organizing workshops. First originated in France, in the prison of Fleury-Mérogis with support from Henri Cartier-Bresson, Marc Riboud and William Klein, this commitment was pursued in the disciplinary camps of Eastern Europe – Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldavia, Latvia – and in the disciplinary centres of Moscow and St Petersburg, as well as in Ireland. Since 2007 Sluban has been working in Central America with imprisoned youngsters belonging to maras (gangs) in Guatemala and Salvador and in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Main goals
SHOW ME YOUR PHOTOS AND I WILL TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE. A constructive criticism
will give each participant the way to channel one's personal point of according to the various situations. There will be every day photo sessions and editing sessions.
Who can join this workshop
Anyone who has a passion for the still image: professional photographers, artists, students of photography and art, amateurs of photography and art, etc... Klavdij Sluban believes that every individual has the capacity to build one's own visual language when passion for the image and the right guidance co-exist.
Final presentation
7 prints on fine art paper with highest museum conservation (Hahnemuhle paper Fine Art RAG 308g). Included in the fees of the workshop.
What to bring
All material – photos, portfolios, etc – relevant to your work, between 10 and 20 printed photos of small size (up to A4 format).
Your digital camera, one lens only & its accessories (extra batteries, memory cards, cable for image
transfer to a computer, USB key, external hard disk, etc...)
A notebook or recording device to facilitate note-taking during the workshop since many references on photographers, books, main exhibitions, places...will be given any time.
Very much appreciated: your personal computer for more efficient work.
Price
The cost of a the workshop is 980,00€.
The number of participants is limited to 12. First-come, first-served. A first payment, half of the total amount, will secure your inscription.
Living
Three options are possible and are additional to the cost of the workshop.
Six night formula (from Sunday 29. April till Saturday 5. May) including all transportation (from and to airport, visits out of town by minibus, by train, etc), Sunday evening greeting dinner, 3 meals a day and 6 nights of shared room with shared bathroom in the incredible Celica Hostel (in 2006 Hostel Celica was proclaimed world's no. 1 Hippest Hostel by Lonely Planet) located in a former jail.
http://www.hostelcelica.com/en
Costs: 590,00€
Six night formula (from Sunday 29. April till Saturday 5. May) including all transportation (from and to airport, visits out of town, by minibus, by train, etc), Sunday evening greeting dinner, 3 meals a day and 6 nights in a double room with two beds, private bathroom. In a central and cosy, family run hotel.
http://slamic.si/
Costs: 790,00€
Six night formula(from Sunday 29. April till Saturday 5. May) including all transportation (from and to airport, visits out of town by minibus, by train, etc), Sunday evening greeting dinner, 3 meals a day and 6 nights of single room, private bathroom. In a central and cosy, family run hotel.
http://slamic.si/
Costs: 960,00€
How to apply
Please contact Tereza, coordinator of East To East Photography, speaks English and Slovenian.
Phone:
+ 336 38 30 39 11 (French number)
+ 386 40 30 16 77 (Slovene number)
email: easttoeastphotography@gmail.com
Email answers will be given in the same language as the one used for the questions.
Spoken languages
English, French, Slovene...and many others, just ask.
PROGRAM OF THE WORKSHOP FROM SUNDAY 29 APRIL TO FRIDAY 4 MAY 2018
Each participant is being awaited at their arrival point in Ljubljana, generally the airport, and driven to their staying place.
Sunday 29th of April :
Dinner. After all participants have checked in, welcoming dinner with all the participants in company of Tereza and Klavdij. Dinner is in a nice courtyard of a gastronomic restaurant in the old town. This first meeting is a pleasant way to know each other as well as to see details about the week to come and get maps, brochures, etc...
Monday 30th of April :
Morning : reading of the portfolios. Each participant must bring between 10 and 20 printed photos of a small size (up to A4 format). Constructive criticism and advices about the way to channel photographically one's perception of the various situations that will be encountered during the week to come.
1pm to 2.30pm : group lunch in the old town.
Afternoon : discovery of the old town, starting with the has-to-be-done visit of the castle overwhelming the city by funicular, then secret spots such as hidden courtyards or small trades, visit of the National Library NUK with its famous architecture by Jože Plečnik.
8pm to 10pm : group dinner in the old town with traditional cuisine.
10pm : traditional Slovenian gathering on the night before the 1. of May on Rožnik, hill in central Ljubljana where every year a big crowd meets to light a huge fire, so called «kres». Such fires are made all over Slovenia on that night. Perfect for night photography (with or without flash).
Tuesday 1st of May :
9am : departure by train towards North East Slovenia. The train station of Ljubljana, located in a beautiful XIXth century building is always lively and full of flavors from all around Europe since there are direct connections with Trieste, Venice, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb, Belgrade... Heading towards Zidani Most, a 40mn ride, gives two opposite motives of Slovenia : on one side the landscape scenery offered by the river Sava, running in-between gorges and valleys, on the other side huge factories, some of them abandoned, tearing the landscape.
Group lunch in a mountain traditional restaurant next to a church dedicated to Saint Agnes from the 17th century and a transmitter with a breathtaking view on the nearby valley and factories.
Back to Ljubljana by minibus.
4pm to 5.30pm : Editing. Participants get contact proofs of photos made the previous day.
7.30pm : Group dinner in a restaurant combining traditional dishes with modern cuisine. Different kinds of traditional dishes also available.
Wednesday 2nd of May :
9am : departure to Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj by minibus (West of Ljubljana). Bled gives a impressive view on the castle overlooking the lake. A stop will be made in Villa Bled to have a cup of tea in president Tito's tearoom, with its original furniture and photos.
The nearby Lake Bohinj is to some more beautiful than Lake Bled because much less touristic therefore more authentic.
Group lunch will be taken in a typical gostilna (tavern) with the Alps in the background. Traditional home-made food is served in an authentic family atmosphere.
After lunch, visit of the surroundings of the lake.
4pm : back to Ljubljana
4pm to 6pm : Editing. Participants get contact proofs of photos made the previous day.
8pm : Group dinner in old Ljubljana.
Thursday 3rd of May :
9am : Day dedicated to hidden Ljubljana. Lively morning market, visit of «Metelkova City», a squated artistic alternative ex military camp of Yugoslav army and the abandoned factory of bicycles «Factory Rog». Heading towards «Savsko naselje», a typical former socialist block of flats neighborhood.
1pm to 2pm : lunch in the old town.
2.30pm : boat ride on river Ljubljanica.
4pm to 6pm : Editing. Participants get contact proofs of photos made the previous day.
8pm : Group dinner in Ljubljana.
Friday 4th of May:
9.30am to 1.30pm: the morning is dedicated to the final editing. Participants get contact proofs of photos made the previous day. The photos selected in common agreement between each participant and Klavdij will be printed on fine art archival paper (Hahnemuhle paper Fine Art RAG 308g).
1.30pm to 2.30pm: group lunch.
Once the editing is done, the afternoon is dedicated to wandering around the town, with indications of specific spots to be visited according to one's tastes.
8pm : festive group diner in a restaurant with panoramic view on the city ending this week of workshop.
Since accomodation of the night from Friday to Saturday is taken in charge, transport to the airport or any other departure point from Ljubljana, can be done on Saturday.
This program has been elaborated considering all the aspects that will make this workshop as pleasant as can be (atmosphere, logistics, technical aspects, material aspects...). Yet, some changes can occur due to unexpected circumstances.
