© Hellen van Meene

The Allegorical Portrait with Hellen van Meene

The art of staged portraiture: mastering light, shape, posture, gaze and general mise-en-scene.


Goal

Learn how to create mis-en-scene portraits by mastering natural light, shape, posture and gaze. Learn how to balance what is wanted as a photographer and what the subject is willing to give. Develop an intuitive approach to portraits by improving your capacity of feeling about the subject and not only seeing.

Biography

Hellen van Meene was born in 1972 in Alkmaar, Netherlands. From 1992 to 1996, she studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. During this time, she briefly studied at the College of Art in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1995.

Since the mid-1990s, van Meene has garnered attention for her staged, yet intimate, photographs of adolescent girls and androgynous boys. Her formal and lighting sensibility is partially informed by her Dutch predecessors like Johannes Vermeer and she originally chose her subjects within her hometown of Alkmaar. However, within the last decade she has gathered models from abroad, notably Russia and Japan.

Program

This will be a hands on workshop with shooting sessions, individual assignments, daily group discussion and editing sessions.

You'll be expected to fully immerse yourself, take risks and push your boundaries in order to move forward into another level in your photography.

May 26 - May 29, 2016
4 days in Amsterdam - 980 €
Early Bird 930 €
before Feb. 26th

- Only 9 students will be admitted for each session. Students will be granted admission to the workshop based on a review of a selection of 10 of their photographs.

- The 980€ fee does not include transport, accommodation nor on the ground expenses. For participants coming from outside the European Union, please be aware that there is a bank fee when making the payments via bank transfer.

- In order to confirm your application, an advance payment of €100 is advised. Once the application is completed, we will send an email via PayZen to the participant in order to settle the payment. If the candidate is accepted, this amount will be deducted from the overall cost of the workshop.

- In case the participation is not confirmed, he will get a full pay back of the 100€ fee.

- If accepted, the participant will receive a course contract confirming the success of his application by email.

- To confirm registration, the participant must return this contract to us, signed, within ten days, along with payment of 30% of the cost of the workshop.

- The rest of the fee must be paid by the first day of the workshop at the latest. The participant will then receive a receipt.

- A dossier in order to get prepared for the workshop will be sent to the participant at least two weeks before the course begins.

- If you're willing to participate in more than one workshop, we do offer a 10% discount on the following workshops' price.

- Successful candidates will be expected to arrive comfortable with their equipment and ready to photograph.

- Participants working digitally should bring their own laptops, and everything needed for digital editing.

- Participants working on film can use external laboratories services to develop their films but at their own expense and within the given time. Eyes in Progress will provide a list of laboratories and prices and the workshop team will be able, whenever possible, to bring the films to the lab and back once they're developed.

- Participants are required to find their own accommodation in Amsterdam. However Eyes in Progress will provide you with a list of affordable places.

- Photo books

- Projector and screen

- 1 MAC with photo editing software

A technical assistant will be present during the workshop.

- The portfolios produced by each participant will be published on the site of Eyes in Progress.

- An evaluation committee comprised of professional photo editors, journalists, creative directors and gallery curators will then critique these portfolios. It will be published on the student's page on Eyes in Progress.

- In case the participant does not want a portfolio review after the workshop, the workshop price will be reduced of 70€.

- Video interviews in which the students discuss their work, their motivation as photographers, as well as what they learned during the masterclass will also be posted on the site. In case the participant is not willing to have his video online, we won't publish it, however, we do encourage to record the video anyways as a practical exercise on how to orally express himself as a photographer.

- Social media modules will be available in order to share the page with friends and contacts.

- Each participant will be awarded a certificate of completion of the course.

- The participants will be required to evaluate the course when it has been completed, to show their level of overall satisfaction and the extent of their acquisition of new skills. These evaluations will help us to improve our courses.

- If the participant is not willing to have his profile online (portfolio, review, video), we will of course respect his decision and will not publish it.

- There will be two rounds of applications review:

> If you apply before March 31st 2016: successful applicants will be informed via email by April 2nd, 2016.

> If you apply after March 31st 2016: successful applicants will be informed via email by April 30th 2016.

It is possible that the workshop is completed with the first round of applications, in that case, the second round of applications will not be processed.

Applications will be open until April 28th 2016.

- In case the participant comes from far away and needs to make early travel arrangements regarding the workshop's date, we will study his request to review his application ahead of the official deadlines.

- Eyes in Progress reserves the right to cancel groups with less than 7 participants. Students will be given either a full refund or offered a place with an alternative photographer. In the event of a cancellation, students will be given at least 3 weeks advance notice. Eyes in Progress reserves the right to change or alter the program advertised.

- If a participant decides to cancel for whatever reason, this must be confirmed in writing:

. Eyes in Progress will reimburse all the registration costs except for the €100 administrative fee, if the participant informs Eyes in Progress of cancellation at least 3 weeks before the first day of the workshop. Beyond this time limit, Eyes in Progress will charge the following:

. 50% of the cost if cancelled between 6 and 20 days before the workshop commences.

. 100% of the cost if cancelled less than 5 days before the workshop commences.

. All workshops that are commenced but not completed through the fault of the participant need to be paid in full.

- Eyes in Progress is not responsible for reimbursement of travel expenses in case a workshop is cancelled. We recommend that you buy refundable air tickets and/or travel insurance.

Eyes in Progress is committed to using all possible means to enable beneficiaries with disabilities to participate in the workshops. For this, the director of Eyes in Progress will assess all required adaptations and implement them.