The Wander Workshop
Seeing. Awareness. Our place.
If you'd told me, back in early 2020, that I'd be hitting pause on in-person workshops for the next four years… well, I would've looked at you funny. And yet, here we are. There's been plenty of Zoom and Teams interactions in the interim, but no real, flesh and blood personal connections, no walking and searching, with cameras and lenses strapped around our necks.
Yes, we went through The Great Pandemic Blip. No way around that. But I could've rebooted workshops as soon as the world went back to “normal”. The reason I didn't? This version of the world didn't actually feel the same, and I couldn't pretend otherwise without lying to myself, and to everyone else. So, when I looked at re-activating those old Shadow Workshops pages, my reaction was simply… nope. This needed to be different.
Because we're different.
In 2024, I don't want to engage in the frantic urban chase anymore, pursuing the hustle and commotion of semi-crowded downtown streets. Of course that approach can still be thrilling, but I've done it to death, and I'm eager to follow other avenues.
Besides, street photography is a mindset, not a destination.
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The WANDER WORKSHOP is a one-day 1:1 meetup focusing on awareness, perception, and flow. It obviously revolves around photography, but it also incorporates journaling and audio recording, even an art museum visit—because seeing, I think, happens beyond the shutter. The idea is to explore all the different pieces that come into play and feed our work—ultimately, we're always shooting who we are, what we feel, and what we know, even if we're unaware of it.
Of course, I'll be happy to answer any technical questions you may have along the way. But overall I see this as a kind of meditation on visual creation, and on interpreting the world around us.
There's also a very personal aspect to this new workshop: it all takes place in my neck of the woods. I'll pick you up from the Longueuil Metro station, [1] we'll drive back to the little town where we live on the shores of the Richelieu river, and spend the entire day there. The morning will focus on capture: walking, various photography exercises, exploration, discussions, etc. After lunch, we'll sit down in my home studio and import the images. We'll then look at post-processing, storyboarding, and various Lightroom techniques and strategies.
You'll be getting a notebook and a pen. At the end of the day we'll select six pictures together, print them (nothing fancy, just the same shoebox prints I make for myself), and I'll give you a small box to bring all of this back home, neat and tidy. Keepsakes.
If you're interested, please check out the official workshop page here.
I look forward to showing you around the neighbourhood ;)
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If required, obviously. This is also the easiest option if you're staying in Montreal—just a couple of Metro stops from downtown. Btw: the drive is 35-40 min, so it gives us plenty of time to chat :)
