The Workshop Comes to a Close

The Foundry Photojournalism workshop ended a few days ago and overall it was a great experience.  We all did a photo essay on a subject in and around Manali.  Many of the photos were impressive and some of the stories were quite interesting.  My story was about a Nepalese farmer, 22 years old, who lives on a 1 acre orchard owned by a local “businessman.”  He stays there 24-7 for the growing season and goes back to Nepal to visit his family at least once a year. It is a very lonely existence, he rarely interacts with others and he spends much of his time tending to the orchard and guarding the property.   (Will post pics of the story on my website if you are interested: www.davidjnicolaphoto.com ).

Other students did stories on Tibetan monks and culture, other India cultures around Manali, local hospitals, etc. Overall many of the students were impressive photographers and photojournalists.   Honestly, after seeing the work of many students during the workshop (as well as their past work and current websites) my photo skills have a LONG way to go.  I need to get some better photos especially if I am going to have a website that people actually look at!  Some people really have a unique perspective and it comes through in their photography.

Meeting everyone was certainly the highlight of the event.  There were 70 or so students with about 10 instructors.  Our instructors were well-known photojournalists that donated their time to come teach the class.  The students were very diverse, from all over the world and had many different levels of experience.   Some were freelance photographers or photojournalists and some were neophytes (i.e. me). 

The last night was supposed to be our big blowout party.  At about 4 pm I found out nothing was organized in terms of alcohol or late night partying. So I decided to take charge as the “Beer Man” and figure it out.  With the help of my new friend, Varun, we were able to make sure the party lasted until 5 am.  We got beer, alcohol, wine, mixers, etc all organized for the various parts of the evening and even were able to make sure the drinks were “mostly” cold (which is tough to do for massive quantities of alcohol in a country were fridges are infrequent and small and ice does not exists…at all!)  The party ended up being a great time and a great way to top off the week.  If my busy schedule of unemployment permits, I will seriously consider returning again next year as they plan on hosting the workshop in Istanbul or Sarajevo.