The House That Kept the Sea

The sea at Scopello does not begin where the house ends. It enters through the shutters, moves across the ceilings and leaves its blue light on walls that once held nets, ropes, salt and the tools of the fishermen.

The Tonnara was not built to admire the water. It was built to read it. Generations watched the direction of the wind, the movement of the currents and the seasonal passage of the tuna. The baglio, the boat stores, the fishermen’s rooms and the small harbour belonged to the same working body. What remains today is an architecture of attention: every opening looks towards the sea because life here once depended upon understanding it.

Photography begins with the same attention. The faraglioni are not a background but three vertical presences, stone bodies rising from the water. The human figure does not need to compete with their scale. A shoulder held against a doorway, a gesture reflected in a window, a body momentarily contained between rock and horizon may be enough to make the immensity of the place personal.

Inside the Tonnara, the relationship becomes more intimate. Living rock enters the rooms beneath the tower; exposed tuff, worn plaster, timber, old iron and Sicilian ceramic hold different temperatures of light. Outside, the sea opens every composition. Inside, it returns in fragments: a reflection on a wall, a blue edge beneath a door, the sound of water arriving before the water itself is seen.

I have chosen Scopello because it carries several times within the same walls. The time of the rock. The time of the migrating fish. The vanished rhythm of collective work. The domestic time of the rooms we now inhabit. And, between them, the brief time of a photograph.

Over three days, the first impression will have time to recede. We can return to the same doorway after the light has changed, allow a portrait begun beside the sea to find its conclusion inside a room, and discover the quieter images that a place reveals only after we have stopped asking it to perform.

Six photographers, three models and a dream between sea and history

Meet the Model is a shared photographic production. It is neither a course nor a workshop: there are no lessons and nothing to hand in. Bring the images you would like to attempt and the willingness to stay with them.

I will be with you throughout. If you would like a short explanation of a light, a technique or a piece of equipment, I will gladly give it and try it with you. This informal help is offered entirely free of charge.

Meals are taken together and are included in the participation fee; drinks remain at each person’s own expense.

The Tonnara di Scopello is a rare and sincere testimony to tuna fishing and the history of the Mediterranean. You can experience the ancient seaside village where you can just spend your time listening to the sound of the waves and where you can open the window and see only the blue of the sky and the sea with the faraglioni as the only protagonists.

For our photography, the interest lies in that continuity. A room can hold a quiet portrait while the sea remains just beyond an opening; a figure outdoors can bring a human scale to the architecture and rocks. We will look for images in which the setting is felt without overwhelming the person.

The Tonnara rests inside a small inlet on Sicily’s northwestern coast, beneath the old village and close to the Zingaro Nature Reserve. Palermo Falcone Borsellino Airport is approximately fifty minutes away by road, while Trapani Birgi offers another convenient point of arrival. Accommodation at the Tonnara is included for the duration of our three days together.

On the first morning, 29 April 2028, we ask everyone to arrive between 9.00 and 9.30 am. This gives us time to welcome you, settle in and meet one another before we begin at 10.00 am.

On the third day, 1 May, we finish at 6.00 pm, followed by half an hour for farewells. Those who would like to remain with us will be warmly welcome to join one last dinner later that evening; the time and place will be shared closer to the date.

Over many years of working as a photographer, and of running both a photographic studio and an equipment-hire service, I came to understand what photographers truly hope to find when they arrive on a set. Not simply more equipment, but the freedom to make an image without being stopped by the absence of the right tool.

This is what London Photographic Workshop places at your disposal: a rare, complete photographic production, brought together in one place and made available to you for the duration of the event. It is the kind of equipment most photographers encounter only in fragments, over many years, and which would cost a considerable sum to hire for a three-day production.

You will be able to work with HASSELBLAD X2D II cameras and a selection of HASSELBLAD lenses; SUNBOUNCE natural-light systems, including reflectors, screens, Sun-Swatter and Sun-Cage; PROFOTO, BRONCOLOR and BOWENS studio flash; professional battery-powered PROFOTO flash, with a complete selection of modifiers; LEE Filters and professional matte boxes; MANFROTTO photographic tripods; and MATTHEWS grip equipment.

This is not equipment assembled for display. It is a working set of serious tools: the cameras, light, modifiers and support systems that allow an idea to become a photograph when the moment arrives.

Respect is part of the photographic language, not an administrative footnote. All models and participants must be eighteen or older. The models determine their individual nudity and posing boundaries. Consent is specific, ongoing and may be withdrawn at any time. No participant may touch a model without explicit permission. No phones, spectators or behind-the-scenes recording on closed sets.

Images may not be published, exhibited, sold or submitted to competitions outside the agreed model-release terms. No generative-AI training or synthetic alteration of a model’s body or identity. A private changing and resting area must always be available. Models receive proper breaks, meals, accommodation and transport support.

Alcohol is served only after photography has finished for the day. Before each session, the artistic director holds a short consent check-in covering wardrobe, nudity level, location, participating photographers and intended images.