Day 0: Becoming a Student Again at the Magnum Workshop in Provincetown

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Dana Danzel, a drag queen at a bar. I approached and asked her if I could take a few photos. I loved her personality, and blue accents. Shot a roll of Kodak Portra 400 on her on my Leica, and shot a few photos with my phone to email her. Provincetown, 2014.

Just flew out from sfo this morning at 6am and arrived for the meet and greet for the Magnum Workshop. Was met with a beautiful sunset, and was able to meet some great folks. Also had a great chat with Song, the Magnum workshops coordinator.

I spent some time with my good friends Karl and Quoc (who have attended workshops with me in the past) , and also met Kile and Sofia (two other Magnum scholarship winners, under 30 years old).

I’m quite excited for the workshop. I teach so many workshops myself, it feels liberating to be a student again.

It was so exciting getting the scholarship acceptance email (almost as exciting as getting into college) and I see this workshop as a great opportunity to meet other passionate photographers, learn from the master Magnum photographers, and also learn how I can teach my workshops better.

I’m so grateful for my girlfriend Cindy for sending me the link to the workshop and encouraging me to apply. I honestly didn’t think I would get in (there were only 4 workshop scholarships available) but getting in has given me a lot of confidence in my work.

I think the assignment is to shoot a project for the week. I’m quite interested in the drag queen culture here, I might document that. Apparently Provincetown has the second largest gay community after San Francisco.

Unfortunately David Alan Harvey got stuck at the airport, so won’t be here until Wednesday. The upside: first two days I’m going to attend Constantine Manos’ workshop (love his work).

I’m going to try to shoot the entire workshop on film (hopefully I can add the images to my ongoing “Only in America” series). And maybe a few photos on my phone for Instagram.

Going to sleep early, to wake up at 6am to capture some beautiful light!

Hugs from Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Day 0 of workshop
September 14, 2014
1040pm