Transcending Reality
Countryside, Cuba 2004
Six students, five of which had already studied with me in the past including Frank and Willard whom had taken five workshops each in the last two years. To thank Frank and Willard for their support, I gave both a print of mine as a token of appreciation for their confidence in me.
Wendy and Maureen were at their second experience and Kevin was attending his third workshop after Santa Fe and Oaxaca. Berndt , coming all the way from Austria, was the only one that I was meeting for the first time.
Due to the talent that each of one of them possessed, I knew from the very start that the group had the potential to do extremely well.
The six days spent in the countryside were very intense and unforgettable. Every night Wendy would show us the unedited images taken with her digital cameras. Looking at her images it was a source of inspiration for the rest of the class. Through her photographs we could try to understand what to expect from our own takes, what might have been a good shooting situation and what we had done wrong.
The last day of editing was a real treat. Each of one of them did so well that for the first time in the history of my workshops, I’ve decide to select eight images by each student both for the web-page gallery and the book that Kevin is working on and that soon will be published with their exceptional photography.
The workshop was a confirmation that photographic growth is slow and needs time and dedication. Only by committing to study for long period of times you can come up with images that manage to transcend reality. From this simple but profound concept we came up with the name of the group.
The pictures are so compelling and complex that I wished I had taken some of them myself. Probably the best compliment a teacher can give to his students.
Look at the images and you will understand why. EB
