WKU’S PHOTOJOURNALISM PROGRAM’S MOUNTAIN WORKSHOPS ANNOUNCES NEW DIGITAL STORYTELLING WORKSHOP AND MT. STERLING, KENTUCKY AS THIS YEAR’S EVENT LOCATION
The Workshops, which are now in their 43rd year, are an internationally recognized collection of simultaneous Photojournalism, Video Storytelling, Picture Editing workshops. In addition to our existing workshops, we are offering a newly created Digital Storytelling workshop. This new masters class workshop will give like-minded professionals who have skills in photo, print design, video-storytelling, time-lapse, writing and data visualization a perfect opportunity to team together and produce a single, goal-oriented project. The Mountain Workshops will be held Oct. 23 – 27.
Unlike our other courses where participants are guided by a single coach and work as individuals, this workshop is built around collaborative cooperation. Each participant in the Digital Storytelling Workshop will play to their strengths, but be closely engaged with their team and multiple coaches. Together they will build a story on a selected topic.
In what started as a class project to document one-room schoolhouses in Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, the Mountain now hosts roughly 100visual storytellers each year as they explore a different Kentucky community. The Digital Storytelling Workshop is a perfect opportunity to learn from industry-leading storytellers and innovators in the historic context of the workshops.
Participants typically have journalistic training and come from a variety of journalism schools and professions, but it is not limited to those in the newsgathering business. Attendees come from various storytelling backgrounds and sometimes come back to the workshop several times. “As a working professional wedding photographer with a journalism background, Mountain Workshops has reminded me why I got into this business – storytelling,” said Jennifer Tai, a wedding photographer based in Washington state. “It’s also added a layer to my wedding work, … a kind of meaningful documentary storytelling that photojournalism can bring to the table. This business has changed tremendously in the last 25 years and continues to do so, and Mountain Workshops with its multi-layer panel of mentors and coaches, has enabled me to think deeply and broadly about where I can go with my photography, not just professionally but personally as well. I’m a workshop junkie and have attended plenty in the last decade. I am sad to miss Mountain Workshops this year because of work, but cannot wait to apply again in 2019 and be with my Mountain Workshops family again!”
Texas based visual storyteller Michael Cirlos, who attended the 2015 photojournalism workshop, created a project inspired by Humans of New York. Cirlos’ book “Humans of San Antonio” was released this summer with several book signings and showings. “I learned so many valuable storytelling lessons and skills at the Mountain Workshops that I’m using everyday as Staff Photographer and Videographer for Centro San Antonio. Rick Loomis was my coach in 2015, and one of the lessons he taught me was to always challenge your position as you want to be in the best spot possible. Keep in mind of a better shot because it’s usually just around the corner.”
About 160 participants, faculty and staff gathered in Morehead, a community on the border of the Appalachian Mountains, and produced documentary shorts, still images, visual graphics and time-lapse photography that are presented on-site. They will also be featured in a book and a traveling gallery. This year, the neighboring community of Mt. Sterling will host the workshops.
Watch last year’s wrap-up of the week, feel the inspiration and come join us for a great week of learning, discovery and fellowship.
Click here for a direct link to our application page.
For further information, please contact: mountainworkshops@wku.edu
