Workshop
FROM THE THEORY TO THE BOOK
Exploring the editing process in photobooks
3 DAYS WORKSHOP with Valentina Abenavoli / Akina
28 / 29 / 30 May, 10 am to 7 pm,
documenta-Halle, Kassel
Max 10 participants
Cost: €200
Language: English

FROM THE THEORY TO THE BOOK is a collaborative workshop aimed to analyse how to read an image, understanding the endless possibilities of the editing process and its meaningful limitations, as well as exploring and developing a method both creative and practical, with a hand-on approach for the sequence. The workshop will attempt to cover all the theoretical tools useful to build up a visual narrative in the book form: shifting the reading of a single image to a sequence of images, editing according to the concept and the intentions of the work, questioning the visual representation and the messages conveyed in the images, when placed in a sequence. Collective feedback and trials will lead to discover possible pairs and sequences of photographs, understanding the potential of a photographic project and re-imagine it in a book form. Every photobook is a self-contained universe with its own set of rules. A series of photographs can be a starting point for the process of creating a story, within two covers. During the genesis of a photobook, ambiguities and clashes, unexpected juxtapositions and riddles will emerge, revealing the pleasure and pain of visual language. Every picture will gain a different meaning when placed in a broader perspective of the book as a whole.

HOW TO APPLY:

Participants should have a photographic project in an advanced state, not necessarily completed, which can be turn into a publication.
Applications including a pre-selection of 25 images should be sent to: valentinaabenavoli@gmail.com
If selected, 50/100 pictures printed in small size will be needed during the workshop.

Valentina Abenavoli, Italian, a past life in London, now based in Istanbul, is an editor and designer, who prefers reading photography in lyrical sequence, and being constantly on the edge between awareness and reveries. After a degree in photography, a master in book publishing and several odd jobs, in 2012 she founded Akina, together with Alex Bocchetto. Their independent publishing house collaborates with emerging and established photographers, editing and producing challenging photobooks in limited editions, often handmade. In 2016 she published her first photobook as author titled „Anaesthesia“, followed by „The Harvest“, the second chapter of an unfinished trilogy around the subjects of empathy and evil. She participated in several group and solo exhibitions. On a side, she works freelance as editor and book designer.