It's time to announce the selected participants for the workshop with BLOW UP PRESS! Thank you to everyone who applied.
Mihaela Aroyo, Polona Avanzo, Julia Bohle, Simon Chang, Jonathan Dayman, Motiee Nazanin, Chantal Nicod, Giuseppe Sannino, Marta Wojnarowska-Olszewska
2-DAY WORKSHOP WITH BLOW UP PRESS AT KRANJ FOTO FEST 2024
Visual Narration: How to Sequence Your Story to Create an Inspiring Photobook
What makes a good photobook?
Photographs published? Artist name? Or maybe a properly organised story-flow? The two-day workshop with BLOW UP PRESS editors, Aneta Kowalczyk and Grzegorz Kosmala, will introduce you to the secrets of visual storytelling.
During the workshop, you will develop the skills in sequencing your own photographic project, which is the most important thing to do before making a photobook. The layout of the book, its format, properly selected fonts and papers – all of this is also important, but they cannot save the book if … the story doesn’t stick. Conversely, properly arranged photos can save a book when its other qualities fail.
Thanks to the workshop, you will learn the basic rules of photo-sequencing for creating a photobook. You will learn how to tell a story with images and how to present it to a potential publisher.
“Properly made sequencing of images in a photobook is also important because it is the only place where the artist has full control over the viewer’s movement. At the exhibition, everyone walks as they like: along the left or right wall from the beginning to the end, or room by room. Meanwhile, by enclosing the project between the covers of the book, it dictates the direction of reading the photos in accordance with the artist’s will.” – Aneta Kowalczyk and Grzegorz Kosmala
Great news! The application deadline has been extended until 28.7.2024.
What to expect:
Thanks to the workshops, participants will improve their skills in conducting a visual narrative, understood as the first stage towards preparing a book project. Together with the instructors, they will set the main framework for their photographic projects. They will learn how to cooperate with graphic designers and publishing houses.
How to apply:
- Photographers, visual artists and visual storytellers older than 18 years old, from all over the world, can apply to this workshop. Note that the workshop will be conducted in English.
To submit your application, send us an email with a zip file containing:
- a detailed description of your project,
- an explanation of what you would like to achieve at the workshop,
- a sample of 20 numbered photos in JPG format (each image should not exceed 500 kB) from the series you would like BLOW UP PRESS to guide you with during this process.
Save all images and texts in only one ZIP file under the title Name_Surname. Send this ZIP file to the email info@kranjfotofest.org by 28th July 2024 with the email subject Workshop BUP.
NOTE! Please do not send your texts in the email body. Instead, include the PDF or Word file in the same folder as the photos.
What to bring in case you are selected:
Prepare a 15-minute presentation of your project to show to all participants of the workshop.
To work on your project, take your images printed on paper of minimum 15 x 21 cm (maximum 21 x 30 cm).
Participation fee for the workshop (in case you are selected): :
- 150 €
Places are limited to 10 participants.
- BLOW UP PRESS will make a selection of up to 10 participants to take part in the workshop. The results will be known by August 1st 2024.
PROGRAMME
Thursday, 22.8.2024, 10:00–17:00
10:00–13:00 meet and greet: getting to know each other / presentations of the participants’ projects
13:00–14:30 lunch break
14:30–15:30 introduction to sequencing: rules and traps
15:30–17:00 first round of sequencing projects submitted by the workshop participants (to be continued on Friday)
Friday, 23.8.2024, 10:00–17:00
10:00–13:00 second round of sequencing projects submitted by the workshop participants (continuation from Thursday)
13:00–14:30 lunch break
14:30–16:30 third round of sequencing projects submitted by the workshop participants
16:30–17:00 open discussion about possible developments of the projects resulting from the workshops
About BLOW UP PRESS
Established in 2012, BLOW UP PRESS is a publishing house run by two crazy photography enthusiasts. It publishes photobooks and lens-based art books known for their thought-provoking subjects and unique design. Always going against the market, BLOW UP PRESS follows the motto “When the story matters.” Distant places, closed communities, social inequality, violence, everyday barbarism, current affairs, mystery past, passing time, world on the verge of collapse, misleading identity and love – these are just some of the topics one can find in their books.
Since 2020, BLOW UP PRESS also organises an annual BUP Book Award contest whose goal is to transfer a photography-based project to the book format.
Grzegorz Kosmala and Aneta Kowalczyk
Grzegorz Kosmala is the owner and founder of BLOW UP PRESS, where he is responsible for everything but book design. Before BLOW UP PRESS, he worked for international public relations agencies, dealing with clients from the IT, machinery, metallurgy, gastronomy and financial industries. He got into the world of photography thanks to one of his clients, for whom he supervised a national press photography competition. Aneta Kowalczyk is the photo editor, book designer and art director of the BLOW UP PRESS publishing house. The books she designed have won several awards, including the European Design Award (2024), POY81 Pictures of the Year International (2024), Polish Graphic Design Awards (2019, 2022), Prix Bob Calle du livre d’artiste (2023), International Photography Awards (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021), Maribor Photobook Award (2020). They’ve also been shortlisted for the Rencontres d’Arles Book Awards (2022, 2024), Lucie Photo Book Award (2022) and PHotoESPAÑA (2018, 2019, 2020, 2023, 2024). Aneta was recognised as one of three Magazine Visual Editors of the Year in the 2018 Pictures of the Year International (POY75) contest.
Apply via email info@kranjfotofest.org until 19th July 2024!
