Federico Clavarino

“AN IMAGE OF WATER”

In this  5 day workshop, participants will pick up the challenge of creating imagery of water. Water is what our bodies are primarily made of. Water is thirst. Water’s shape is dependent on whatever contains it. It might reflect or refract light; it can be a mirror or a window, like a photograph. Water is a powerful symbol. In Santorini, wherever you look there is water. After a few days on the island, it becomes the canvas of your vision, its beginning and end.

How can we succeed in creating an image for something so elusive and yet so important to us? We’ll look at works that have addressed this topic as well as similar challenges, in and outside the medium of photography, and we will all work on a project that will possibly take us from the island to somewhere else.

There’s no limit to the approaches people can adopt. Projects can be documentary in nature—for example, dealing with how water informs the lives of people (fishing, tourism, migration, etc.)—but they might also, for instance, address water as matter and use it as part of photographic processes. Some might choose to adopt more poetic approaches that rely on metaphor or oblique narratives. 

Participants are expected to be familiar with photographic techniques (analogue, digital and/or algorithmic), but we strongly encourage the participation of practitioners from other fields. The more diverse the group we manage to put together, the better. 

We think of this workshop as a way of assembling a research group whose aim is to explore ways to turn water into art. Our hope is that participants will expand their knowledge base and let their encounters with others, as well as the place itself, change the way they work. And, in the process, change them as individuals.