14-21 September Danube Delta Documentary Photography Workshop

Join American photographer Davin Ellicson on the Danube Delta of Romania in September 2013 for a week exploring and photographing this fascinating part of Europe, cut off from the rest of Romania.

A paradise for wildlife and now both a Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Delta was once slated to be drained by dictator Nicolae Ceausescu who intended to use its water for agriculture. Today, most visitors and photographers come for the wildlife, but our focus will be on the rich daily life of the local inhabitants--fishermen, ethnic Ukrainian Lipovani and people living in the port towns of Sulina and Sfantu Gheorghe.

Davin is offering a seven day documentary photography workshop based in the village of Periprava. From here, we will take daily boat rides along the myriad channels, exploring different communities including Mila 23 and Murighiol.

Davin will be working closely with workshop participants and providing daily critiques and group discussions. We will begin with a review of participants' past work. The goal of this workshop is to learn to create strong personal photographs about life on the Danube Delta. We will shoot during the day and edit in the evenings. It’s a workshop open to amateurs and professionals alike. Technical, theoretical and aesthetic issues will be discussed as attendees work towards honing their individual visions.

Everyone will stay at the "Ultima Frontiera Complex, a boutique hotel far out on the Delta and home to Lipovani fishermen. The compound offers great local food and is an excellent base for our explorations. Local guides will help facilitate an immersive experience with the communities we visit.
 
It will be an opportunity to witness a remote area of Europe where people live in synch with the seasons and depend on the water of the Delta for their livelihood. The week promises to be an intense, intimate and unforgettable experience where students will get to know the villagers of the Delta first hand and experience a spectacular way of life.

It is an all digital workshop limited to 8 students and everyone should come with their own laptop and editing software.

DATES: 14-21 September.

WORKSHOP LOCATION: Periprava, Romania.

WORKSHOP FEE: €995. Accommodation, meals, round trip transport from Bucharest to Tulcea, Romania and on to Periprava as well as all transport within the Delta are included. A few budget airlines now fly from western Europe to Bucharest including Wizz Air and BlueAir.

REGISTRATION: The workshop is open to any professional or committed amateur who has knowledge of digital cameras and editing software.

CONTACT: davin@davinellicson.com

20-27 July Saxon Villages of Transylvania Documentary Photography Workshop

 

 

 

 

 

Join American photographer Davin Ellicson in the Saxon Villages of Transylvania in July 2013 for a week-long documentary photography workshop in an enchanting area of Europe.

Central Transylvania was home to scores of ethnic German villages from the 12th century onwards when King Géza II of Hungary invited Germans to colonize the area, but dictator Nicolae Ceausescu sold back around 90,000 Saxons to West Germany in the 1980s in an effort to rid Romania of the minority as well as to help pay off the country's foreign debt. The remaining Saxon population made a mass migration to Germany in 1990. Today some are returning and the area is coming alive once again.

Davin is offering a week-long documentary photography workshop based in the village of Viscri. From here, we will explore this lost world and tour the villages of Malancrav, Crit, Mesendorf and Biertan among others by mini van.

Davin will be working closely with participants and providing daily critiques and group discussions. We will begin with a review of students' past work. Participants are encouraged to photograph what interests them on their own, in pairs or small groups. The goal of this workshop is to learn to create strong personal photographs about some of the most unspoiled rural life left in Europe. We will shoot during the day and edit in the evenings.

Through group as well as one on one discussions of the best work, participants will see their picture making skills improve. Technical, theoretical and aesthetic issues will be discussed as attendees work towards honing their individual visions. What are you trying to say with your photography, to communciate? It's all about making a personal visual response to Transylvania. Participants will leave inspired and with a new understanding of the possibilities of documentary photography and how to continue in their practice after the workshop.

Everyone will enjoy great access to the villages through local guides from The Mihai Eminescu Trust and accommodation at restored Saxon homes will allow for an immersive experience with local villagers. The seven days promise to be an intense, intimate and unforgettable experience.

Since the fall of Communism, The Mihai Eminescu Trust, an NGO that Prince Charles collaborates with, has played an instrumental role in calling attention to Romania’s endangered rural culture and the plight of the Saxon Villages and is working to restore precious architecture and to revive the communities and make them sustainable again.

The Trust has renovated the houses and churches using traditional building materials and techniques and is helping return the idyllic villages to active farming through training the mostly Romanians and gypsies who now live there. Guest houses have opened encouraging the growth of a sustainable local economy and the youth are deciding to stay.

It is an all digital workshop limited to 8 students and everyone should come with their own laptop and editing software.

DATES: 20-27 July.

WORKSHOP LOCATION: Viscri, Transylvania and surrounding villages.

WORKSHOP FEE: €895. Includes a room at a restored Saxon home with three meals each day, all transportation around the villages and the assistance of local guides. Students are responsible for getting to Sighisoara, Romania on their own from where we will head out to the villages.

REGISTRATION: The workshop is open to any professional or committed amateur who has knowledge of digital cameras and editing software.

 

CONTACT: davin@davinellicson.com

 

29-30 June Bucharest Street Photography Workshop

 























            

  



“When I wake up in the morning, and I feel good, I tell myself: ‘Today may be the last day of my life.’ That is my sense of urgency”.—Josef Koudelka

Join American photographer Davin Ellicson for an intensive street photography workshop in Bucharest, Romania in June 2013.
 
The city is a beguiling place which still suffers from outdated communist-era stereotypes. Well off the tourist track, there is a raw energy to Bucharest that has to be experienced to be believed. Globalization has yet to fully run its course here and a curious blend of old and new Europe exists side by side.

In his fifth workshop in the city, Davin will be working closely with participants and sharing his passion for Bucharest which has been his second home for the past 5 years. The goal is to perfect one’s street shooting skills and the art of spontaneous photography by exploring Bucharest as well as how to edit — select and sequence your photographs — intuitively. It’s a workshop open to amateurs and professionals alike.

Through group as well as one on one discussions of the best work, participants will see their picture making skills improve. Technical, theoretical and aesthetic issues will be discussed as attendees work towards honing their individual visions. What are you trying to say with your photography, to communicate? It’s all about making a personal visual response to Bucharest.

The workshop will begin with individual portfolio reviews over coffee and pastries and Davin will show the work of classic masters such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, Josef Koudelka, Gueorgui Pinkhassov and Alex Webb among others. We will then discuss the principles of street photography before we head out to explore the hidden back streets of Bucharest.

On Sunday morning we will covene for more shooting before a late afternoon review of the work and more discussions of the masters. Participants will leave inspired and with a new understanding of the possibilities of street photography and how to continue in their practice after the workshop.

Limited to six students.

DATE: 29-30 June 2013.

WORKSHOP LOCATION: My studio in central Bucharest.

WORKSHOP FEE: €200

Accommodation, transportation, meals, and other expenses are not included.

REGISTRATION: The workshop is open to any professional or committed amateur who has knowledge of digital cameras and editing software. Participants must come with their own camera, laptop and editing software.

CONTACT: Please contact me at: davin@davinellicson.com


Biography:

American, born 1978.

Since 2000 Davin has been transfixed by the Eastern European country of Romania. Immediately after finishing college he lived for a year with subsistence farmers in a village in the Carpathian mountains suspended somewhere in the 18th century. The photographs from this period became his first major project: “Peasants” which is due out as a book in 2014. Today, Davin works between New York City and Bucharest, a beguiling little known EU capital that is in the midst of dramatic change and cultural regeneration after Ceausescu. An ongoing series on the city comprises the second part of a trilogy of works on Romania. In 2011, Davin began “Paradox Romania”, a wide-ranging road trip around Romania looking at the country’s post-communist evolution.

Davin’s work has appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Der Spiegel, L’Espresso, ART, OneWorld, AFAR and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He regularly photographs and produces multimedia for the NGO’s Ovidiu Rom, IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board) and Not For Sale in Romania.

Ellicson’s work is included in two books: “East” which includes 20 years of photography by Anzenberger Agency photographers in Eastern Europe and beyond as well as “This Day of Change”, a group project by Courrier Japon on the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration. 132 photographers captured life around the world and English and Japanese versions of the book were published.

Davin’s photography has been exhibited worldwide including at The Phodar Photography Biennial in Bulgaria, The Takashimaya Store in Tokyo, Japan and at The East West Gallery in Vienna, Austria. In June 2012 his Maramures work was included in the Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism in Hannover, Germany. Awards and honors include a grant from The Romanian Cultural Institute in Bucharest, two honorable mentions in Jen Bekman’s Hey, Hot Shot! contest, the portfolio award at The 2009 Phodar Photography Biennial and a Larson Fellowship to photograph Saami Reindeer Herders in Sweden.

Davin is represented by the Anzenberger Agency in Vienna.