Last year we had a working round table that began with an intimate presentation and dinner with William Albert Allard in his second hometown of Missoula, Montana. Following that round table, the conversation with Bill continued. We published an article on his life’s work in Issue 5 of Rear Curtain and talked about plans to do something together again.
We decided to hold a workshop in one of the great American cities–New Orleans, Louisiana. A small group of photographers gathered together with Bill and Ray as instructors-in-residence to learn to use their artistic voice to address clichés in visual storytelling. The workshop was structured around understanding how to use the photographic essay form to go beyond past and current portrayals of New Orleans. Each day participants spent time developing and photographing their New Orleans stories, and had one-on-one access to the instructors. They also attended daily review sessions where there was extensive discussion on the work.
Here are a couple of the photographic essays from this round table:
Dorothy Brown: Timeless Travel on the St. Charles Streetcar Line
Jacob Lucas: Music in New Orleans
Here’s a blog post from Ken Udle on his time in New Orleans: The Best Workshop is…