Last week, I completed a four day masterclass with Bruce GIlden in London. I was one of a small number of students, with the majority coming from outside the UK and as far as New York and Hong Kong. I have admired Bruce's work since I started photography as someone who produces not only great pictures but also manages to capture the human condition in each one. On the Monday evening, there was a reception and viewing of his latest series set in and around Detroit at the Leica Akadamie in London. For the first day on the Tuesday we had to submit 15 pictures for his review and critique. On the basis of this, he set an assignment for the afternoon that was designed to build on what was there but also to challenge. That was the pattern for the course each day, except Friday where we spent all day reviewing the work and pulling together a coherent series for each person. Bruce also gave us a lecture, running through many of his best known shots and give in us the background to some of them. His feedback was very direct and thought provoking but hugely informative and inspirational.
Reviewing my portfolio series of people eating food on Friday
He asked each one of us what we were thinking when we took the pictures and he said that one of the ways we would know if a picture was good or not was if he could talk about it. I developed the sense of going out to shoot with some specific purpose in mind. Yes - always be on the look out for that decisive moment but have a clear objective in mind and think of the story. He also spent a lot of time talking about his approach to portraiture as opposed to just candid work and how he focused on the eyes and almost into the soul of his subjects.
I spent my time trying to capture some pictures of people eating food which presented challenges but by the end of the week resulted in an interesting series.
Overall I learnt a great deal from the 4 days and would go to another seminar of Bruce's.