The Fredric Roberts Photography Workshop in Monterrey has officially begun! This time we are in a now location with a new partner, the Museo de Arts Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO) and we are very excited about this particular week. Not only do we have an incredible space in which to work with these students, but the team on the ground preparing the way for us have gone miles beyond. The students are great, the team is great, our venue is great, and the tacos are great! What else do we need?
The teaching team arrived a few days ago and immediately began scouting the locations. The story this week is focused on industry and they began by visiting each of the stores, factories, and small businesses, identified by our local team, in order to bring focus to the assignment the kids will be working on. We have a strong narrative and quite a diverse set of places and people to photograph and we feel pretty good that our students will be able to create a beautiful and compelling story about the shift in industry affecting the city.
But before we can begin the work of shooting, or even learning how to shoot, we had to get a couple things out of the way: getting a handle on the technical workflow and, more importantly, breaking the ice! After Fred led the introductions and hyped the students with his introduction to the week, we played a game of personal bingo. Sara gave out a list of “Bingo” cards where each space was a description of a certain experience or ability and the students had to talk to each of the other students in the group to match a person to the bingo box. For example, one cue was to find someone who can do 20 push-ups in a minute and to have them show you. Another, to “Find someone who can speak more than 3 languages – list them.” As you might guess the students quickly mixed and worked through any new group jitters.
In the afternoon, Mike led our tech session where he assigned each of the students their cameras, explained the control interfaces of the camera, and ran them through the computer workflow: downloading, importing, renaming, editing, and exporting. It was a lot for the students to take in and it meant that we spend most of the day in one tiny classroom, but we got through it, the students look capable, and we’re ready to start the real business of photography tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!
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