Olivia Arthur

Motivation and approach: what defines you?

On this 5 day workshop she will work with each one of you to help understand and define your photographic practices.
You will spend time looking at past work and projects to pin down what it is that motivates you and why you take this approach in your work. Referring to “approach and motivation”, it doesn’t necessarily equate with a visual style but you will discuss the difference between these things.
In her work she uses many different visual styles but she finds coherence in the way she approaches and explores each project and how she tries to communicate with it.
Integrating text and ideas are as important as refining the way you take photographs. For this reason, she encourages you to bring as much of your past work as possible, including book dummies, short projects or work that is still ongoing alongside any portfolio that you have. You will spend time looking through it all and helping you to identify the work that most represents. She will also assign you a short project to work on for the duration of the workshop that will help develop these ideas.
Having spent two years as the president of Magnum and in a position to represent the different approaches and motivations of the members of the collective, she feels that she has learnt a lot about on how to understand different needs and how to help people in a way that fits with their particular motivations and practice.