New Photo Workshops in Provence

My very first trip to Provence was in 1997, when I took a two-week photo workshop sponsored by the Maine Photo Workshop (Rockport, Maine). Based in a hotel in Fontvieille, we set up a makeshift darkroom and spent two glorious weeks exploring the history, culture, architecture and light of Provence, with two fine photographers (Craig Stevens and Antoine Godard), as our guides. It was, as they say, a life-changing experience, which led to my quitting my magazine-editor job in New York and moving to St. Remy a year or so later. Photo workshops rock!

And while I make my living as a writer, I'm still crazy passionate about photography...and I try to keep up with what’s going on in the photo world here in France. (Some recent stories are here, here, here and here.)  So I was delighted to learn last week about a new series of photo workshops launching here in Provence this spring. I think they’re going to be great and I definitely plan to take one.

Kenneth Hope is a British photographer and filmmaker who has been living in central France for seven years. He has worked for high-profile clients such as Revlon, Johnny Walker, Manpower, Nestlé, Czech Telecom, EMI, General Motors and Rayban, while his editorial work has appeared in Vogue, Esquire, Elle and The Mail on Sunday.  Kenneth has lectured in photography at the Royal Academy for Fine Arts in the Hague and had shows in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. A selection of his images are above.

This month, Kenneth and his wife, Ingrid, will move to Lorgues (in the Var region of Provence, about halfway between Aix and Nice), and team up with Kenneth’s friend Martin Poole to offer two- and three-day digital photo workshops between May and October. (Martin is an photographer, art director, designer, animator and computer-graphics expert.) Some workshops happen over the weekend; others are mid week. They’ll all include location shooting in RAW and high-res jpeg formats, exercises and image review, work with digital enhancement and archiving and, it’s safe to say, lots of food, wine, laughter and bonhomie.  If you’re traveling to Provence specifically for a workshop, you may want to time your trip to take in some of the Rencontres d’Arles as well. It’s a large, international photo festival in Arles that kicks off on July 2, 2012.

If the pre-set workshop dates don’t work for you, private classes for small groups can be arranged. Beyond that, everything you need to know is on the Raw Digital site here. You can also email Kenneth directly (info@rawdigital.net) or call him at: +33 (06) 01-84-37-84. 


All photos copyright by Kenneth Hope.