The Studio and Location Program

Foundation

A one week immersion into the fundamentals of natural light, exposure and composition for photographers beginning their journey. orem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since 1966, when designers at Letraset and James Mosley, the librarian at St Bride Printing Library in London, took a 1914 Cicero translation and scrambled it to make dummy text for Letraset's Body Type sheets. It has survived not only many decades, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised thanks to these sheets and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker and Microsoft Word including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

6 participants · 6 spots left

Intermediate

A photographic journey through the landscapes, communities and memories of the Sahara: where the desert dreams and the horizon becomes a mirage. The Road of Mirages is a seven-day visual itinerary through southern Tunisia, beginning and ending in Tataouine. The journey unfolds across three great narrative territories: the vernacular architecture and Berber villages of the Dahar; the dunes, palm groves and communities of the desert regions; and finally the chotts, mountain oases and cinematic landscapes around Tozeur. This workshop is not conceived as a simple sequence of destinations, but as the construction of a coherent photographic story. We will work on the relationship between light and matter, human presence and landscape, document and interpretation. Each participant will be guided in developing a personal vision of the journey, culminating in a photographic sequence able to convey its atmosphere, rhythm and memory. === THE ROAD OF MIRAGES A photographic journey through the landscapes, communities and memories of the Sahara: where the desert dreams and the horizon becomes a mirage. The Road of Mirages is a seven-day visual itinerary through southern Tunisia, beginning and ending in Tataouine. The journey unfolds across three great narrative territories: the vernacular architecture and Berber villages of the Dahar; the dunes, palm groves and communities of the desert regions; and finally the chotts, mountain oases and cinematic landscapes around Tozeur. This workshop is not conceived as a simple sequence of destinations, but as the construction of a coherent photographic story. We will work on the relationship between light and matter, human presence and landscape, document and interpretation. Each participant will be guided in developing a personal vision of the journey, culminating in a photographic sequence able to convey its atmosphere, rhythm and memory. === The Learning Experience Field sessions will be combined with group discussions and image reviews. Teaching will be integrated into the journey and adapted to each participant’s experience. We will work on natural light, composition, landscape and architectural photography, environmental portraiture, respectful engagement with local communities, visual sequencing, image selection and the development of a personal narrative. When conditions allow, the programme will also include sunrise, twilight and night photography. # Teaching Themes - Reading natural light throughout the changing hours of the day - Composition and the organisation of space - Landscape and cultural landscape photography - Vernacular architecture and the relationship between form and territory - Environmental portraiture and a respectful approach to local communities - Street photography in markets and inhabited places - A considered use of colour and black and white - Building sequences and developing a personal visual narrative - Image selection and editing - Photography at twilight, dawn and, whenever conditions allow, beneath the night sky The purpose is not simply to collect views of southern Tunisia, but to understand what gives a place its photographic meaning—and to transform that understanding into an authentic body of work.

6 participants · 6 spots left

Foundation

This is an intimate fine-art retreat for photographers who want time to observe, direct and create—not simply accumulate images. 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. A small island and enough light to remember it by. An intimate photographic retreat inside an iconic Aeolian house suspended between volcanic stone and the Mediterranean. Three adult professional models, a maximum of six photographers, and three days devoted to natural light, the human figure and the slow rhythm of Alicudi. The island 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, white 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. === Essential format Three days and two nights on Alicudi. A maximum of six participating photographers. Three adult professional models. One artistic director and workshop leader. Fine-art nude, implied nude and environmental portraiture. Natural light, with discreet reflectors and minimal continuous lighting. Digital, film and Polaroid photography welcomed. Intermediate and advanced photographers; serious beginners may join. Working language: English, with Italian and French support if available. === Artistic objectives Participants will learn to direct a model clearly, gently and collaboratively; develop images rather than simply collect poses; use the geometry and colour of the house as part of the composition; photograph skin in hard sunlight, open shade and window light; balance the figure against a large Mediterranean landscape; work with gesture, stillness, movement and negative space; create visual continuity across a photographic series; and edit a small, coherent portfolio at the end of the retreat. The three visual chapters 1. The House — Interior intimacy, doorways, white walls, faded colour, cool rooms and reflected light. The body appears quietly within the domestic architecture: reclining, passing through, partially concealed or framed by shadow. 2. The Terrace — Pink walls, yellow floor, vine-covered pergola and blue horizon. Here we explore the tension between saturated colour and the simplicity of the human form. 3. The Island — Volcanic stone, paths, sea, vegetation and late-afternoon wind. The body becomes less portrait and more landscape—something elemental, fragile and timeless. Working structure The six participants are divided into three pairs. During rotation sessions, each pair works with one model at a separate location. This creates calm sets and gives everyone meaningful camera time. At selected moments, photographers work individually while the remaining participants observe, assist or edit. Nobody photographs over another participant’s shoulder without invitation. === Participant experience Each photographer receives a pre-retreat creative questionnaire, a recommended equipment and packing guide, three days of guided shooting, sessions with all three models, at least one private directed shoot, an individual portfolio consultation, a group editing and sequencing session, a post-retreat online review within four weeks, and a small digital booklet containing the final collective selection, subject to model approval. === Ethics and closed-set policy 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. Selected images intended for publicity should receive model approval. 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.

6 participants · 6 spots left

Intermediate

A masterclass in editorial fashion photography — concept development, casting, styling, lighting and the storytelling that binds a cover image together.

6 participants · 6 spots left

Intermediate

Three days chasing the fading light across coastal and mountain terrain, mastering long exposure, filters and the patience the dusk hour demands.

6 participants · 6 spots left

Masterclass

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6 participants · 6 spots left

Intermediate

A workshop on architectural photography — perspective control, light on form, and the geometric discipline required to photograph great buildings.

6 participants · 6 spots left

Masterclass

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.

6 participants · 6 spots left

Masterclass

A photographic workshop across two thousand years of desert civilization — from the rose-carved capital of Petra to the sandstone tombs of AlUla. Follow the ancient incense roads of the Nabateans — the master merchants and stone-carvers who built an empire not of walls, but of water, and left their signature chiselled into the living rock of two deserts. This eleven-day field expedition traces their civilization end to end: beginning in the rose-red city of Petra, where the Siq splits open to reveal Al-Khazneh, and ending in the mirrored canyons of AlUla, where the tombs of Hegra stand silent beneath the same stars that guided the caravans. This is a workshop for photographers who understand that a place is not captured — it is earned. We move on foot at dawn and at dusk, the two hours when the desert stone turns from ochre to blood to gold, and we work in small cohorts beside a master who has photographed the Levant and the Hejaz for three decades. You will learn to read light on sandstone the way a geologist reads strata: where the sun will fall, how long it will hold, and when the shadow becomes the subject. What you will shoot: • The Treasury and the Monastery at Petra in first light, before the crowds descend • The back-road tombs of Little Petra and the Wadi Musa canyon system • Hegra (Madâin Sâlih) — the southern capital, with its 111 Nabatean tombs and inscriptions • Elephant Rock, Jabal Ikmah (the open-air library of Dadanitic inscriptions), and the Maraya concert hall mirror • Bedouin camps at night — astrophotography over the Gharameel dark-sky reserve • The living culture of the Huwaitat and AlUla camel herders, photographed with consent and time What you will learn: • How to manage harsh, high-contrast desert light — exposure stacking, graduated filters, and the discipline of waiting • Architectural and archaeological composition: scale, geometry, and the human figure as a measure of stone • Night and astrophotography in true dark-sky conditions — planning, focusing, and stacking • A respectful, documentary approach to people and culture — the ethics of photographing across a cultural line • Post-production for warm, low-saturation desert palettes in the editorial tradition This is not a tour. It is a slow, deliberate passage through one of the most photographed and least understood civilizations of the ancient world — led with the rigour of National Geographic and the craft of the Leica Academy, in the conviction that the best photograph is the one made after everyone else has gone home.

6 participants · 6 spots left

Foundation

Venice will be more than the destination of the workshop: it will be its living material. We will walk through alleyways still immersed in the silence of morning, cross squares where time seems to have gathered at the foot of ancient façades, and sail towards the islands as the lagoon dissolves all sense of distance. We will follow the movement of water, the transformations of light, and the traces left by time on stone, wood, walls, and faces. We will not seek the monumental Venice of postcards, motionless in its beauty and already reproduced countless times. Instead, we will search for a more secret, fragile, and unstable city: reflections broken by the passing of a boat, a figure disappearing into the mist, the tide line etched into the plaster, a window illuminated for a few fleeting moments, or the everyday gesture of someone who continues to inhabit a place suspended between splendour and erosion. Photography will become an instrument of exploration, but also a form of listening. We will learn to wait for the light to reveal the invisible structure of a scene; to recognise the moment when an apparently ordinary detail acquires the weight of a symbol; and to observe how human presence enters into dialogue with a landscape shaped by water over the centuries. Every image will emerge from the meeting of precision, sensitivity, and time. The workshop will embrace the approach of great photographic reportage: close attention to the territory, respect for its people, and the ability to transform direct experience into a coherent visual narrative. We will not simply collect isolated images. We will construct sequences capable of conveying the rhythm of the city, its contradictions, its silences, and the complex relationship between beauty, everyday life, and environmental fragility. The lagoon will be observed as a living organism. The tides mark the rhythm of its breathing; the mist continually redraws its boundaries; the wind alters the colour of the water and the distance between things. Venice will emerge as the result of an ancient and precarious balance between nature and human ingenuity, permanence and transformation, memory and loss. Each participant will be invited to develop a personal point of view. Some may follow the traces of everyday life, others the changing landscape, and others still the abstract forms created by the encounter between water, architecture, and light. Through field explorations, practical assignments, group reviews, and editing sessions, the photographs will gradually come together to form an individual narrative. The result will not be a simple travel diary, but an intimate geography of Venice: a map shaped by moments of waiting, unexpected encounters, detours, and sudden revelations. A narrative in which what has been seen becomes intertwined with what has been imagined, and in which every photograph preserves something that, at the very moment it appears, already seems about to vanish. Where Water Remembers Light is an invitation to photograph Venice not as a motionless image of the past, but as a living and vulnerable presence. To observe what endures, what changes, and what is at risk of disappearing. To allow the water—the city’s silent keeper—to guide our gaze and return to us, for a single moment, the memory of light.

6 participants · 6 spots left

Masterclass

The Memory Road was conceived with this philosophy in mind. More than an itinerary, it is an immersive photographic expedition designed for those who seek to create meaningful visual narratives rather than simply collect destinations. Over the course of 1,200 kilometres, this carefully crafted journey leads through the vast and timeless landscapes of Southern Morocco. Five distinctive stages unfold across a region where mountains, desert, fertile oases and centuries-old villages coexist in remarkable harmony, revealing a land where history and everyday life remain deeply intertwined. This is not a journey built around landmarks, but around light, people and stories. Each day follows the natural rhythm of photography: the first light gently revealing the textures of earthen architecture; the long afternoon shadows transforming villages into studies of geometry and form; the golden hour washing the desert in warm tones before darkness gives way to one of the clearest night skies on Earth. Throughout the expedition, participants will encounter the living heritage of Berber culture, meeting communities whose traditions, craftsmanship and way of life have been preserved across generations. These are not staged encounters but genuine opportunities to observe, engage and document daily life with sensitivity, respect and curiosity. The route unfolds through an extraordinary diversity of visual landscapes: endless dunes sculpted by the wind, lush palm groves emerging from arid valleys, fortified kasbahs and ancient ksour rising seamlessly from the earth, dramatic canyons, high plateaus and forgotten caravan routes where every bend offers a new photographic possibility. Alongside these striking landscapes lie remarkable testimonies of human history. Millennium-old communal granaries, prehistoric rock engravings and Africa's oldest known beehive stand as enduring symbols of a civilisation that has learned to live in balance with its environment. They offer photographers the rare privilege of documenting a cultural heritage whose significance reaches far beyond its geographical boundaries. The journey has been designed around one essential luxury: time. Time to wait for the perfect light. Time to return to the same location when conditions change. Time to build trust with the people we meet. Time to slow down and allow photographs to emerge naturally through observation rather than haste. Whether your approach is documentary, portraiture, landscape or personal visual storytelling, The Memory Road offers an environment where every photographer can develop a coherent body of work while refining both technical skills and visual awareness. Every destination becomes a chapter. Every encounter enriches the narrative. Every shift in light transforms the way a place is seen and remembered. The ambition of this journey is not simply to return home with beautiful photographs, but with images that preserve memory—images capable of bearing witness to a land that still exists beyond the noise and acceleration of the modern world. Because travel photography is not about collecting places. It is about building relationships. Not about passing through a landscape, but allowing the landscape to leave its mark upon you. The Memory Road is an invitation to slow down, to observe with intention, and to tell stories with honesty. A journey where every photograph becomes a fragment of memory, and every memory quietly shapes the way we see the world.

6 participants · 6 spots left

Masterclass

A three-day masterclass on 4x5 view cameras — composition under the dark cloth, metering for film, and the patience that large format demands of every frame.

6 participants · 6 spots left