§ Workshop — Foundation
BODIES, STONE & SEA
Alicudi, Italy
Departs · 11 June 2027 · 3 days
Participants · 6 · Spots remaining 4
Inside an iconic Aeolian house facing the Mediterranean, we will explore the nude as landscape, gesture and quiet human presence. Morning light will enter through cool rooms; vine shadows will move across the terrace; at sunset, the body will meet the blue immensity of the sea.
There are no roads on Alicudi. There are no cars. Six hundred stone steps climb from the harbour, and everything you bring, you carry yourself, one step at a time — the mule carries the luggage, not your camera, which stays with you all day.
At the top, the house with the yellow terrace. Two terraces, in fact: one shaded by a vine pergola that breaks the light into stripes across the floor, the other open, where the view turns through a full three hundred and sixty degrees — the other Aeolian Islands on one side, Sicily on the other, and only sea between them. Inside, antique Sicilian tiles in the bathroom, a large kitchen, colour everywhere.
Alicudi is not an island for everyone. It is arid, harsh, wild, carrying an energy the islanders themselves call ancient. It does not let itself be chosen: it chooses you. You either hate it, or you fall in love with it forever — there is no middle ground here.
Working with three professional models in groups of only two, each participant will develop a personal photographic story shaped by Alicudi’s architecture, colour and elemental silence. A closed set. A respectful collaboration. Three adult professional models, a maximum of six photographers, and three days devoted to natural light, the human figure and the slow rhythm of the island. Alicudi is not merely the location. It is the fourth model.
The concept
The workshop explores the nude as presence rather than performance: the body in dialogue with architecture, wind, shadow, water and silence. The visual language will be poetic and Mediterranean—sun-bleached colours, yellow walls, deep blue horizons, textured skin, linen, volcanic stone and the tender imperfections of analogue photography.
This is not a crowded “shooting day.” Each participant receives time, space and individual guidance. With only six photographers and three models, we can work in pairs and avoid the dreadful semicircle of clicking cameras—a firing squad with light meters.
§ Field Work
Field Work
The house as the fourth model
June light on Alicudi rises high enough to turn a shaded room into a place of relief rather than absence — the doorway becomes the working instrument, not the wall beside it. Photograph the passage between exposure and shelter, and let the house hold as much of the frame as the body does.
Between exposure and shelter
Midday belongs indoors: windows, pale walls, the colour the sea throws back through them. Morning and late afternoon belong outside, in oblique light. Confusing the two hours produces a picture that is technically correct and says nothing — a room holds traces of living an empty horizon never will.
The travel diary
Our age hands us machines and calls them memory. They are fast, and the journey is not. The journey asks for the opposite of speed: it asks for pauses, for halts, for the hours when the body rests and the mind catches up with where it has been.
Carry a notebook, and write in it by hand. There are moments on every journey when you find yourself alone, for an instant, before the immensity in front of you. It is then that thoughts arrive which will never come again, and which no screen will keep for you. Fix them on the page, or they scatter into the dust, the sun and the wind of the day, and are lost.
A gift of your own images
Most of the advice I can give you is obvious. Protect your equipment. Keep your socks and shirts away from the dust, because pulling on a clean, fresh shirt is always a pleasure. Any traveller knows these things, and perhaps you know them already. I say them not to teach, but because a teacher leads by example.
But there is one thing I have learned over the years that I do not impose on you: I recommend it, with force. If you wish to build a real relationship with the people you meet, a gesture of tenderness, a gift, is the surest way. Travellers have always carried gifts to the peoples and the strangers who received them. And what is the most precious gift a photographer can give? An image.
My suggestion is simple. Take one of those small photo albums, ten by fifteen, and fill it with the pictures you love most, printed small. Give them to the people you meet along the way. Write on them with a suitable pen: hello, your name, thank you, whatever you wish. The print becomes a personal object, made for that person alone. It costs you nothing, and it is an extraordinarily powerful gesture.
And it will raise you onto another scale as a human being. You will no longer be someone who arrives, takes an image and leaves. You will be someone who gives something back, who leaves a trace of gratitude instead of only carrying one away. The people before your lens feel that difference at once, and they meet you as a person, not as a camera. That is where the finest photographs are born, and something more than photographs: a bond.
§ The Light Map
The Light Map
June brings Alicudi a long day and a bright sea. Light enters the house differently from winter: it rises higher, sharpens the edge of a doorway and turns a shaded room into a place of relief. The body can be photographed through that passage between exposure and shelter, without needing to occupy the centre of every view.
From 11 to 13 June, sunrise stays close to 05:38 and sunset moves from approximately 20:27 to 20:28, giving almost fifteen hours of daylight. The island’s steep terrain changes those apparent hours from one terrace to another. A hillside may lose direct sun while the sea beyond it remains luminous.
First quarter falls on 11 June, followed by a waxing gibbous moon. The moon is therefore an evening presence, growing brighter through the retreat rather than leaving the whole night dark. Its reflection on the sea depends on our position, the open horizon and the movement of the water.
Early-summer conditions are generally warm, with daytime temperatures in the low to mid-twenties and nights around 20–22°C near sea level. Rain becomes less frequent, but wind and sea conditions remain part of island life. Higher paths and exposed terraces have their own climate, distinct from a sheltered room.
Morning and late afternoon give us more oblique light outdoors; the central hours invite attention to windows, pale walls and the colour reflected from the sea. We let the house become part of the portrait. A room holds traces of living that an empty horizon cannot, and sometimes the more intimate photograph asks us to turn away from the view.
§ What You Will Learn
What You Will Learn
In a quiet room, the smallest movement can change everything. A hand leaves a wall; a face turns towards the window; the blue beyond a doorway becomes part of the body’s space. On Alicudi, we will learn to notice these changes and give them a precise photographic form.
An intimate collaboration
Working in pairs with our models, you will have time to develop an image through dialogue. We will practise giving clear, considerate direction, recognising the model’s own proposals and allowing a gesture to settle before photographing it.
For nude, implied nude and portrait work, the frame must arise within the model’s agreed boundaries. You will learn how camera position, distance and the amount of surrounding space change the intimacy of an image, and how to sustain concentration on a small, quiet set.
The house, the terrace and the island
Each of these spaces asks for another relationship between figure and setting. Inside, we will work with thresholds, window light and partial concealment. On the terrace, colour and the line of the horizon enter the composition. Beyond the house, volcanic stone and wind change the scale of the body.
You will study the edges of the frame, the placement of limbs and the intervals between a figure and the surrounding forms. We will consider when colour gives a photograph its structure and when a more restrained tonal approach better serves it.
The light already in the room
Natural light will remain the foundation. You will compare incident and reflected readings, protect the transitions in skin and learn how a white wall or sunlit floor affects the shadows. SUNBOUNCE reflectors, diffusion, flags and negative fill will show how much can change through a small intervention.
We will also explore restrained additions with ARRI LED light and PROFOTO flash, balancing them with the existing illumination. Source distance, modifiers and gels will be considered through their effect on skin and the room’s atmosphere. The scale of the setup must preserve the intimacy of the encounter.
Choosing a photographic pace
HASSELBLAD medium format, the view camera and panoramic film offer different ways to organise attention. We will work with focus and tonal detail, examine the view camera’s control of perspective and the focus plane, and consider how a panoramic frame places the figure within the house or the island.
The choice of format will remain connected to your intention and to the time the model can comfortably hold a position.
A small, coherent portfolio
Through individual guidance and shared editing, you will identify the images in which gesture, light and place become mutually necessary. We will build a sequence with changes of distance and pace, preserving its intimacy across rooms, terraces and open landscape.
§ Models
Models
Bodies, Stone and Trust
On Alicudi, the body encounters volcanic stone, open sea, steep paths and a horizon without protection. The landscape is physically beautiful and physically demanding. That tension belongs to the work, but it must never be transferred carelessly onto the models.
The models are professional collaborators. Their bodies are not objects introduced to complete a composition; their concentration, movement and interpretation help create the photograph.
A Shared Construction
The photographer establishes an intention without claiming control over another person.
You may ask for a gesture, a movement through the landscape, a relationship with the rock or a particular way of receiving the light. Explain the frame and invite the model to contribute.
Do not move her body or adjust clothing, hair or skin without permission. Allow her to make the correction herself whenever possible. Direction must remain verbal, precise and respectful.
A model may modify or refuse any request. That decision is immediate and final.
Nudity and the Island
Where the nude enters the work, it will be approached through form, presence and the relationship between skin, stone, water and light. Nudity is never an obligation and never an invitation to familiarity.
Consent belongs to a specific situation. A pose accepted on land is not automatically accepted in the water. An agreed angle does not authorise every viewpoint. The model may cover herself or end the sequence whenever she chooses.
Stone, Water and Wind
Volcanic ground may be sharp, hot or unstable. Paths can be steep, and access to the sea may be difficult. Water, current, wind and changing light must be assessed before a model is asked to enter a position.
No one will be asked to climb an unsafe surface, remain barefoot on painful ground or stay in the water beyond her comfort. Towels, footwear, warm clothing, water and shade remain close to the set.
The apparent calm of a body in a photograph may conceal significant physical effort. Learn to recognise it. Do not ask for “one more frame” when the model is cold, tired or uncomfortable.
Privacy on a Small Island
Alicudi offers little anonymity. Cameras must therefore be lowered decisively between sessions. Models are not photographed while changing, resting, swimming privately, eating or travelling between locations.
No behind-the-scenes image, telephone photograph or video may be made without permission. The same care applies to what is later selected and circulated.
Professional language is essential. Comments concern light, gesture, movement and the photograph—not the model’s body as an object of evaluation.
The island gives us very little distance between body and landscape. Respect gives us the distance necessary to see them both.
Anna
One of Europe's most accomplished workshop models, trained by Luca Monti. At LPW, Anna Ramfel also leads casting and model direction: every set with our models begins with her.
Joanne
Works with the nude as form and stillness: volcanic stone and sea are her element.
Linda
A sculptural presence, with a gift for the slow, held gesture.
§ The Itinerary
The Itinerary
The language of the house.
Afternoon: arrival, welcome and settling into Alicudi’s slower tempo. Introduction to the retreat covers artistic vision and references, a tour of the house and location study, model introductions, consent and boundaries and the closed-set protocol, camera preparation and individual creative intentions. Late afternoon brings the first light session: three groups of two photographers rotate between window light and interior shadow, doorways and architectural framing, and the shaded terrace beneath the vines. The first session concentrates on observation and communication—no hurried posing; each image begins with an idea, a gesture or a relationship to the space. Sunset: a short collective session overlooking the sea, using silhouettes, reflected light and the horizon. Evening: welcome dinner followed by an informal projection of Mediterranean photographic references. Each participant selects one visual intention for the following morning.
Body, colour and Mediterranean light.
Early morning, soft light: three simultaneous stations of approximately forty-five minutes each—white linen and quiet interior portraiture, figure against the pastel architecture, stone and plants and the awakening sea. Groups rotate so every photographer works with every model. Late morning brings a direction masterclass: a practical session on communicating an emotional intention, moving beyond conventional poses, directing hands, gaze and weight, knowing when not to direct, and creating implied nude images through framing and fabric. Midday: a long lunch and rest. The Mediterranean sun at noon is a magnificent tyrant; we admire it from the shade. Afternoon: the principal editorial shoot. Participants develop short sequences around colour, form and the horizon—one model against the geometry of the house, two-figure compositions, movement beneath the pergola, skin and vine shadows and saturated colour, minimal figures within the immense seascape, golden hour and blue hour. A carefully choreographed group session with all three models is followed by individual ten-minute shooting intervals. Evening: dinner and first edit. Each photographer presents five images. Discussion focuses on rhythm, repetition, visual authorship and what the series still needs.
From photographs to a body of work.
Early morning, personal assignment: each participant creates a final six-to-eight-image story with one chosen model and location. Possible themes include after the siesta, the woman and the island, salt on the skin, rooms facing the sea, and Alicudi before departure. Each photographer receives a private shooting period without other cameras present. Late morning, experimental session: a choice of Polaroid and instant-film portraits, slow shutter and movement, mirrors and fragmented reflections, fabric and transparency and implied nude, or high-contrast black-and-white studies. Afternoon, editing and sequencing: participants select and sequence a final portfolio of eight to twelve images. Individual feedback addresses image selection, colour consistency, narrative order, retouching restraint, and publication and exhibition possibilities. Closing presentation: a private projection of the six completed series, followed by a conversation with the models about collaboration and representation. The retreat closes with a shared aperitivo facing the sea.
§ Accommodation
Accommodation
The house
The retreat is conceived around shared accommodation in or immediately beside the iconic Aeolian house where much of the photographic work takes place. Living and photographing within the same architecture allows the group to follow window light, wind and the changing colour of the sea without separating the workshop from the place that gives it meaning.
The table
Breakfasts, lunches, dinners and non-alcoholic refreshments are included. Meals are shared and follow the working rhythm: sometimes early, sometimes after the light has finished, always as part of the temporary community created by the retreat.
Arrival and departure
Because Alicudi is remote and ferry services remain dependent on sea conditions, final travel instructions will explain the recommended crossing, luggage limits, porterage where available and the margin needed around connections. The accommodation plan will retain enough flexibility to respond safely to weather-related changes.
A house without hurry
On Alicudi, the schedule proposes; the island disposes. The house is shelter, set, meeting place and editing room: not simply where we sleep, but the centre from which the entire visual experience unfolds.
§ The Equipment
The Equipment
I will not tell you what to put in your bag.
I will tell you what Alicudi does to other people's bags, and then you will decide.
§ Photo Gear
Photo Gear
What the island breaks
Alicudi begins with a staircase. There is no road, there is no car, there is no way of reaching the house that does not pass through stone and breath. On the first day everyone carries everything. On the second day someone leaves something at the house. On the third day everyone's bag is the one it should have been from the start, and the back has paid for those two days. Here weight does not tire the legs: it tires the decisions, and decisions are the only thing you photograph with.
Then there is the salt. It does not scratch, it is not seen, it makes no sound. It settles while you work against the light on the sea, and it shows itself three weeks later, at home, on the lens barrel that begins to turn stiffly. Against salt a better bag is no use: what is needed is to close each piece away when you are not using it, and in the evening to pass a cloth barely damp with fresh water over the parts that have seen the sea.
And there is the June sun at noon, which here is a magnificent tyrant: we admire it from the shade. Whoever insists on working beneath it comes back with skin burnt in the highlights and with the group already tired when the good hour arrives.
What we bring, and you may not use
In the house there is a second camera body. It sits there for three days without anyone touching it, but the staircase of Alicudi is steep, and a camera falling on stone makes a sound you never forget. At that point someone's workshop either ends on the first day, or it does not.
There are the SUNBOUNCE panels, and here they are not a luxury: on a white wall, inside a room with a single window, a panel held by two people brings the light back to where the house takes it away. There are flags to take light away, which are needed more often than one would think. There is flash, PROFOTO and BRONCOLOR, and there is ARRI continuous light: not to illuminate, but to keep a room alive when the sun has already left the island and the model still has something to say.
And there is the spare portrait lens, for whoever discovers on the second day that their 50mm forces them to stand too close to a person who has just undressed.
What each of you decides alone
About your real bag I have nothing to teach you.
I will only tell you what I have seen work. I have seen a Polaroid change an entire day: the model who receives her own image in her hands, looks at it, and then returns in front of the lens in another way. I have seen a film camera slow a photographer down to the point where he stopped accumulating and began to look. I have seen a view camera in a room three metres wide, and three plates that were worth everyone's journey.
And I have seen people arrive with two bodies and six lenses, and not get past the first staircase.
If your photographic project turns on unusual equipment, or equipment that is difficult to handle — film, large format, a slow process — it is important that you let me know as far in advance as possible. In this way we can create a format suited to your needs and, at the same time, to those of all the other people taking part in the event.
There are no roads on Alicudi. There are no cars. There is a stone staircase that climbs, and everything you bring you carry yourself, step after step, with the June heat on your back. The donkey carries the luggage, not your camera bag: that one stays with you all day. This, more than any advice, decides what goes inside it.
Essential requirements
Tripod
In a house with a single window, the light drops below hand-held shutter speeds early. But that is not why you need a tripod here. You need it because a still camera gives you your eyes back: you can look at the person in front of you, speak to them, wait for the gesture, instead of searching for it inside the viewfinder. On the tripod the frame stays and you move. The one I recommend on my courses is the MANFROTTO 055 in carbon fibre, MT055CXPRO4: it rises, it descends, and with a column that swings to horizontal it moves off-centre without dismantling anything.
What we bring for you
There are a few wonders in our bags for you, too. Medium format cameras — yes, including the splendid HASSELBLAD X2D II 100C — to pick up and use. We travel with COLORCHECKER, a complete set of LEE filters with matte boxes and SEKONIC meters. Here, where we work with three models inside a house, we also bring PROFOTO and BRONCOLOR flash, ARRI continuous light, MATTHEWS grip and SUNBOUNCE panels, which on a white wall and against the light on the sea change everything with one small gesture.
And then there is Luca, your guide: a true fine art photographer — read: a rather unusual photographer. Do not be surprised if view cameras, ultra-panoramic film cameras and other delightful oddities emerge from his bags. Shh… they are part of the experience, too.
Need a backup camera, a particular lens, a tripod, a head or a monopod? Tell us before departure so we can plan what to bring. Our enthusiasm is considerable. Our carrying capacity has its limits.
§ Personal Gear
Personal Gear
Alicudi is a volcanic island, steep and largely travelled on foot. The days will move between sea level, narrow paths, stone terraces and open ground exposed to sun and wind. Bring only what you need, but make sure it is suitable for being outdoors for long periods.
Comfortable, well-tested walking shoes with good grip are essential. A trekking pole is essential too, and we bring one for each of you: it can make a real difference on uneven, steep paths, particularly when walking with a daypack or returning in lower light.
Bring light clothing that can be layered: the temperature may change between early morning, the heat of the day and the evening by the sea. A light waterproof and windproof jacket is strongly recommended, together with a warm layer for dawn and after sunset.
Please bring a hat, sunglasses and high-factor sunscreen. A small reusable water bottle, personal medication, and any essentials you may need during the day should remain with you at all times.
A small daypack is preferable to heavy luggage when moving around the island. Your luggage goes up by mule: bring it in a soft bag rather than a rigid case. We also recommend a head torch for early-morning departures or returns after sunset, and lightweight swimwear and a towel for time by the sea.
Alicudi rewards simplicity. Travel light enough to move freely, while being prepared for the sun, the wind, the uneven ground and the slower rhythm of the island.
Over the years, we have developed a welcome package to make your stay as comfortable as possible and help you make the most of your experience. It brings together a thoughtful selection of essentials—things that are easily forgotten or can be difficult to arrange from abroad.
We begin with one of the most important: staying connected.
Your welcome package includes:
Everything is packed in a protective, waterproof expedition dry bag, ready to accompany you throughout the experience.
§ Travel Conditions
Travel Conditions
Alicudi is reached only by sea. Participants should plan their journey through Sicily and the Aeolian ferry network, allowing a generous margin for weather, connections and the reduced winter timetable. Exact meeting instructions and the recommended port of departure will be confirmed before travel.
London Photographic Workshop will help each participant coordinate the final approach to the island. Where practical, the group will meet before boarding; otherwise, clear ferry guidance and direct assistance will be provided so that everyone reaches the house safely.
There are no roads or cars on Alicudi. Movement is on foot along stone paths and stairways, and luggage may require local porterage. Travel light: a compact photographic kit and a carefully limited personal bag are more valuable here than unnecessary equipment.
Sea and wind conditions can delay, alter or suspend ferry services. Participants should avoid tight onward connections and retain flexibility around arrival and departure. Any programme adjustment will follow safety, access and the actual rhythm of the island.
§ Safety & Accessibility
Safety & Accessibility
Alicudi is beautiful precisely because it has resisted convenience. Its paths are steep, stepped and irregular; reaching houses and photographic locations may involve sustained climbs without road transport. Good balance, suitable footwear and a realistic assessment of personal mobility are essential.
The house provides protected interiors and terraces, but exterior work remains dependent on wind, rain and the condition of stone surfaces. Sessions will be moved, shortened or brought indoors whenever the weather makes terraces, paths or the shoreline unsuitable.
The workshop maintains a closed-set protocol for all figure work. Models and participants must be adults; consent is specific and continuous; phones, spectators and unauthorised behind-the-scenes recording are not permitted. A private changing and resting space, regular breaks, meals and warmth are integral to the production.
Medical services and shops are limited on the island. Dietary requirements, allergies, medical considerations and mobility needs must be discussed before booking so that the suitability of the retreat and any necessary arrangements can be assessed honestly.
§ Post-Workshop
Post-Workshop
After leaving Alicudi, with vine shadow, volcanic stone and blue water still shaping the remembered body, the images ask to be returned to those who made that quiet work together.
I did not include six months of post-workshop contact by chance, nor as a simple service.
Many years ago, I was teaching an online course that could easily have felt impersonal. Instead, when it ended, the group did not want to dissolve. We had never all sat around the same table, yet years later we are still a living community. From that experience came conversations, magazines, books, friendships and shared ways of looking.
It taught me how valuable a small circle of people can be when they have lived and worked through an experience together.
For this reason, every workshop includes six months of continued contact at no additional cost, and those months are where the photographs are carried to their end, together. A private group keeps the images moving between us: feedback, and a tuition that goes on, fed by cultural prompts — a book, an image, a thought, an exhibition, an occasion that opens a new direction. Each of you brings your images to a master file ready for fine print, and then we sit down, one to one, before the finished work. Then the group meets again, and there is a particular pleasure in it: seeing how far each of us has travelled since we parted. A Second Eye, an editor or a curator, reads the work as the profession reads it. And the work takes form, a collective book or a zine, depending on the event, and a public life, on a gallery wall or in the pages of Follow the Light. The images do not go back into a drawer. They go out into the world, and they go out together.
The event ends. The adventure in photography begins.