Seville's Streets, Easter Procession, and Flamenco Workshop takes students into the heart and soul of Seville Spain, one of Europe's most dynamic cities and the cultural epicenter of the Andalucía region. During this week of dozens of Easter processions-students will be exposed to one of the most dramatic, moving, and visual scenes of a lifetime in what is already one of the most colorful, interesting cities in the world. Seville is a lively mixture of old world charm and new world energy, full of winding medieval lanes, secluded stone plazas soaked in the scent of orange blossom, and a fascinating blend of Islamic, Roman, and Renaissance architecture, it is a city steeped in romance and tradition, a place that prides itself as the the ancestral home of Flamenco and bullfighting in Spain. It is also an energetic cosmopolitan center, famous for its lively tapas bars, its pulsating nightlife, and its stylish residents.

The workshop will be taught and led by Peter Turnley, one of the pre-imminent visual communicators and world traveling photographers of our time. He is also a tremendous teacher and has vast experience teaching overseas workshops. The workshop will focus on Seville at Easter, during its week of religious processions known as the Semana Santa. A centuries old religious event, each year in the week before Easter, tens of thousands of religious Spaniards march through the streets of Seville in somber repentance, clad in traditional costumes and carrying symbolic religious floats. More than 50 processions happen throughout the week, each with their own theme, route, and distinct visual character. The Semana Santa is an emotional and a vivid visual experience that captivates and inspires a photographer's heart and eye.

Students will spend approx. 3-4 hours each day in class with lectures, presentations, photo critiques of student’s daily work, and discussion with Peter Turnley, and other members of Spain’s photographic community. At least half of each day student will spend walking the streets of Seville, with the aim of creating a photo essay based around a particular visual theme of their choosing. Peter will work with students in their choice of theme-and it is not necessary to know ahead of time what the students’ theme will be. The Semana Santa is full of scenes that incredibly rich in visual interest and will offer the opportunity for stunning photographs of local reality. As this is a workshop with a focus on street photography and photographing the life and reality of an incredible city at a dramatic time, students will be expected to photograph mostly independently or in small groups. Peter will help the students be aware of all of the amazing visual opportunities to witness and explore each day.

Workshop meetings will take place each day at Peter’s rental loft in central Seville, where each day Peter will discuss various insights into technique, intent, composition, and the creative use of the camera and lens in a warm, relaxed atmosphere. He will review and critique each student’s portfolio, and works-in-process, discuss careers, getting published and offer each student an idea of how far along they are and how they can become even better photographers/visual communicators. Most importantly, he will help each student revel in the joy and wonderment of observation and seeing. Students will be focus on how to use documentary photography as a tool for visual storytelling and illuminating the intimate moments of everyday reality. Students will be encouraged to photograph both the ordinary and extraordinary scenes of daily life and to not shy away from the challenge of photographing people. With Peter's guidance and support, a student will learn to overcome any hesitations and timidity that is limiting their work.

Turnley is a master at photographing people and has vast experience in helping students relax and find a sense of purpose in the process of photographing people and daily life. He is a disciple of Henri-Cartier-Bresson, and passionately encourages his students to hone their attention to the “decisive moments” everyday life. Students will create a final 15-image photo story/essay from their week of shooting in Seville. Peter Turnley will help the students refine not only their photography, but gain a greater sense of creating a narrative with images, and how to conceptualize images into dynamic storytelling. Turnley will help you find the threads of commonality in your images that contribute to each person’s individual vision.

The Seville Workshop will offer a student an unforgettable opportunity to experience the unending surprises of Seville in the midst of a truly unique and culturally significant annual event in Spanish life-a visual and human experience of a lifetime.

Companions
This is an ideal workshop to bring along a spouse, son or daughter or partner. Non-photographic companions may join the group sessions and meals but are not involved in the critique or review sessions. Companion supplement is $150.

Hotels
Peter rents a house in central Seville, where workshop meetings will be held. Peter has found 6 very nice hotels with different rates but all within a short walk of Peter's house-they are listed below and are only suggestions. A student is welcome to stay anywhere in Seville, which has a fast and modern public transportation system, and is easily traversed by foot or bicycle. Students are however advised to make hotel reservations well in advance of the Workshop as some Seville hotels are fully booked or considerably raise their rates during the Easter week in Seville. That said, the hotel rates of Seville are very reasonable compared to many overseas destinations.

Aliminar Hotel
Alvarez Quintero 52, Seville 41004, Spain

Hotel Amadeus
Calle Farnesio 6 | Barrio de Santa Cruz, Seville 41004, Spain

Hotel Alcantara
Ximenez de Enciso, 28 Santa Cruz, Seville 41004, Spain

El Rey Moro
Calle de Lope de Rueda 14
41004 Sevilla, Spain
+34 954 563 468

Hotel Puerta de Sevilla
Calle Puerta de la Carne 2
41004 Sevilla, Spain
+34 954 987 270

Hotel Murillo
Calle de Lope de Rueda, nº 7 y 9
Barrio de Santa Cruz
Sevilla, España
(+34) 954 219 616

Travel
The most affordable way to reach Seville is on any of the many daily flights available from numerous U.S. Cities to Madrid's main Barajas Airport, or to Paris- Charles De Gaulle airport. From Madrid or Paris, you can catch a connecting flight to Seville, which has its own smaller airport for domestic and European flights.

From MADRID:

Plane
Multiple carriers fly daily shuttle flights to Seville airport, approximately 10 miles outside of Seville. Local train, taxi, and buses depart frequently from the airport to central Seville. Travel time is thirty minutes or less.

Train
15 high-speed trains depart from Madrid's Atocha station to Seville central station. The journey is approximately 2 hours.

Car (not necessary-only an option)
Rental cars are available at Madrid Barajas airport.

From PARIS

Plane
Multiple flights depart each day from Paris-Charles De Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports to Madrid or directly to Seville. Flying time is less than an hour.

Train
High-speed trains depart from Paris-Montparnasse Station to Madrid-Atocha Station, with 15 connecting trains per day to Seville. The total journey is between 8 and 11 hours, depending on train and departure time.

Further Information
Seville Office of Tourism

Arrival
Plan to arrive on Saturday, April 16, or latest by noon on Sunday, April 17. The first workshop session will begin at 2pm on Sunday, April 17. Flights from the States are often in the evenings, which mean you could fly Friday evening, and make your plane or train connection to Seville on Saturday, April 16 and give yourself an evening to get acclimated before the workshop begins on Sunday.

Departures
The workshop ends at noon, April 23, with a final show of the students’ final 15 image photo stories made during the week. Students are free to leave on Saturday afternoon, which would enable those needing to get back to the States to work on Monday the time to do so. Those wishing to stay in the region longer are free to continue their trip afternoon on Saturday.

Technology
This is a digital workshop-this workshop is conducted using digital cameras. If you wish to shoot film, you may so do, but we suggest you bring it home for processing, so for critiques, you will have to be using a digital camera. Students are encouraged to use a 35 mm digital camera. You will need to know how to download your digital images each evening to a folder so that your days work can be brought to class the next day on either a flash drive, external hard drive, or disc, for review each day with Peter Turnley. From the outset students will be asked to choose whether to work in color or in black and white, and they will be encouraged to stick to their color throughout the workshop.

What to Bring
Besides your SLR digital cameras, students are asked to bring along a body of creative work to share, it can be a printed portfolio, a digital card of images, or any sort of visual set of work. Your portfolio can be prints or digital images. The workshop will have an LCD projector and there will be a final show of all of the students work during the final session.

Camera Gear
A digital SLR camera is required. Students may work with a high end point and shoot camera such as a Canon G10. Two bodies are recommended, with a minimum of at least one wide-angle lens, such as a 17-35mm zoom, or 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, or 50mm lens. In order to shoot comfortably in low light situations, it will be preferable that students have a wide-angle lens that is relatively fast and has a wide aperture such as 1.4., 1.8. 2 or 2.8. Bring several memory cards (at least 1 gigabyte cards are recommended), extra batteries and necessary battery chargers. A laptop should have image management software, such as Apple’s Aperture, Adobe’s Light Room or, as Peter suggests, PhotoMechanic, which can be downloaded, free, on a trial basis from CameraBits.com

A back-up system for storing each day’s work is also required. This can be your laptop, a portable external hard drive storage device, flash drive, or discs. Additionally, you will need means of transmitting your daily selection of edited images in a folder to Peter for review; flash drives are the most practical, but you can also use an external hard drive, or DVD.

Research and Preparation
Research and preparation are important parts of any endeavor, particularly adventures. There are many very thorough guidebooks about Seville, Spain, and extensive information about Seville, Spain to be found on the Internet.

Meals
The first and last meals are included in the cost of the workshop. You will be a guest of the workshop for a group opening dinner on Sunday night, and a final dinner on Friday night. Aside from the two group meals, breakfasts, lunches and dinners are independent but students are encouraged to join each other in local restaurants and cafes. Past students usually have spent around $50 a day on meals.

For more information about teacher Peter Turnley, please consult his personal website: www.peterturnley.com

Turnley has published 5 books of his work:
Parisians
McClellan Street
In Times of War and Peace
Beijing Spring
Moments of Revolution