Workshop The Gaze: Desire, Power and Representation in Images with Marisol Mendez
27. 8. at the Opening Week of Kranj Foto Fest 2026
This workshop is open to anyone interested in images and visual culture, including photographers, artists, students, educators, curators, filmmakers and general audiences. No prior experience in photography, art or visual theory is required.
How do images teach us what to desire? Why do certain visual tropes feel instantly familiar? What happens when we begin to question the ways we have learned to look? This workshop explores how images shape the way we see ourselves and others.
Drawing on examples from photography, cinema, advertising, social media and popular culture, participants will examine how ideas of gender, desire, power and identity are constructed through visual representation. Combining discussion, image analysis and practical experimentation, the workshop introduces key concepts from visual culture, feminist thought and queer theory through an accessible and participatory approach.
Rather than treating theory as something abstract or academic, we will use images as a starting point for collective inquiry, asking how meaning is produced, how visual conventions are learned and how they continue to influence our perception of the world.
Together, we will explore questions such as: How does context change the meaning of an image? How is desire constructed visually? Who is looking and who is being looked at? What is implied rather than shown? How do repetition and visual codes shape the way we recognise identities, relationships and social roles?
Throughout the workshop, participants will develop a shared vocabulary for discussing images and will be invited to experiment with image-making themselves. Working in small groups, they will create a photographic counter-image in response to an existing visual trope, stereotype or power dynamic. This practical exercise serves as an opportunity to test how meaning can shift through framing, performance, intervention and recontextualisation.
Workshop Structure
Part I: How Do Images Produce Meaning?
Collective exercise and discussion exploring how context shapes interpretation, 45 min.
Part II: Ways of Seeing (Theory + Visual Literacy)
Introducing key concepts that structure how images produce meaning and desire, such as the Kuleshov effect, the gaze, queer coding and baiting, representation, and objectification, 90 min + 30 min break.
Part III: Counter-Image Exercise
Participants work in small groups to produce counter-images. The goal is not technical complexity but a clear visual intervention that rethinks the original image through staging, framing, performance, displacement or subtle narrative reversal, 75 min.
Part IV: Presentation and Collective Discussion
Final presentation and discussions, 60 min.
Photo: Marisol Mendez
Workshop The Gaze: Desire, Power and Representation in Images with Marisol Mendez
When: Thursday, 27 August 2026, during the Opening Week of Kranj Foto Fest 2026
Where: Kranj, Slovenia
Duration: 5 hours (10:00 –15:00)
Note: The workshop will be held in English.
Spots available: minimum 6 participants, maximum 15
How to Apply: To apply, please email info@kranjfotofest.orgApplications will be accepted until all spots are filled or until 3 August 2026.
Early bird fee: 85 eur + 22% VAT (until 6 July 2026)
Full price: 100 eur + 22% VAT (from 7 July 2026)
About Marisol Mendez
Marisol Mendez is the Great Winner of Kranj Foto Fest Open Call for Exhibitions 2026 with the project Padre. She is a photographer and researcher from Cochabamba, Bolivia, whose practice examines the tension between truth and fiction, and the relationship between what a photograph constructs and the (sur)reality it draws from. Driven by research-led and self-initiated projects, she questions traditional modes of representation and weaves narratives with multiple layers of meaning. At the heart of her artistic pursuit is a sustained exploration of human experience.
Marisol has exhibited internationally at institutions and festivals, including the Sharjah Biennial 15, Photo London, Unseen Amsterdam, Getxophoto and the Athens Photo Festival. Her work has been widely published in outlets such as Wallpaper, Fisheye Magazine, Vogue Italia, Balam and GUP Magazine. In 2021, Madre was featured on the cover of The British Journal of Photography. Her practice has received significant recognition, including the Saltzman-Leibovitz Prize, the Lucie Foundation Fine Art Scholarship, first place in the 2023 Sony World Photography Awards (Professional, Environment category) and the 2021 PhMuseum Photography Grant New Generation Prize. She was selected as a Foam Talent for 2024–25 and published her first photobook, Madre, with Setanta Books.
Photo: Harriet Browse.
Photo: Marisol Mendez
Kranj Foto Fest follows a fair and transparent workshop fee policy that keeps participation accessible while ensuring mentors are properly compensated. The majority of each fee goes directly to the workshop leaders, while a small 10% is retained by the festival to partially cover essential organisational costs. With the support of our sponsors and partners, we are able to keep participation fees low while maintaining fair conditions for mentors. This approach reflects our commitment to sustainable and meaningful artistic exchange and educational opportunities.