Explorations in Visual Storytelling
Kitra Cahana
Saturday, August 5 – Sunday, August 6, 2023
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
This workshop, led by documentary photographer and filmmaker Kitra Cahana, offers a unique opportunity for participants to dive into the world of experimental visual storytelling. With the objective of helping participants find the right visual language for their project, this workshop explores a range of different techniques within documentary photography.
Through interactive sessions and group discussions participants will investigate a wide range of approaches to visual storytelling and gain valuable insight into the creative process of Kitra Cahana and other documentary photographers experimenting with the medium today. Utilizing various prompts and techniques, students will learn to push the boundaries of their photographs, while staying grounded in a documentary approach, thus opening up new avenues for storytelling.
Group discussions led by Kitra will focus on ways to develop each participant’s visual language for a project they are currently working on or planning to undertake in the future. There will be a day of experimentation where workshop participants will break out into groups and employ what they’ve learned to create photographs on-site in a spacious environment.
The workshop will also include individual review sessions that will offer participants the chance to receive constructive feedback and guidance from Kitra on their personal work.
What to bring: Participants are encouraged to bring an edit from a project or a selection of images to discuss in the classroom space.
Kitra Cahana is an accomplished documentary photographer and filmmaker who is passionate about capturing social, anthropological, and spiritual themes. Born in the US, raised in Canada and Sweden, and with a background in philosophy and visual anthropology, Cahana brings a unique perspective to her work. Her diverse experiences have led her to document a broad range of subjects, including nomadic youth in the United States, migrant caravans on the U.S.-Mexico border, Inuit youth in the Canadian Arctic, Ukrainian Ultra-Orthodox Jewish pilgrimage sites, Venezuelan spiritual rituals, and many more.
Cahana has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including a DuPont Columbia award, a Peabody award, two World Press Photo awards, a Senior TED fellowship, and the ICP Infinity Award for young photographers. She is a contributing photographer to National Geographic Magazine and a TED speaker. Her work has appeared in many leading publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post and ProPublica. Cahana has had a decade-long collaboration with her father, a poet and rabbi, following a brainstem stroke that left him quadriplegic. Her latest film and collaboration with her father, Perfecting The Art Of Longing, is available for viewing on the New York Times Op-Docs site.
Class limit: 8
Tuition: $550 / CPW Members $450
Scholarships are available for tuition assistance. Please email education@cpw.org for details.