Spend a week photographing one of the most beautiful places on earth, Provence, France, and be taught by one of the great photographers of our time, Peter Turnley. The Splendors of Provence workshop is designed for photographers who are keen to appreciate and photograph the life, color, light, and charm of Provence in the south of France.

The workshop is based in city of Arles, France, in central Provence, and the workshop coincides with the famous Arles's International Photography Festival, an annual summer event with more than fifty exhibitions throughout the city that draws many great photographers, artists, and creative connoisseurs every year-offering a wonderfully inspirational backdrop of amazing photographic exhibitions during the workshop.

The workshop is led by Peter Turnley, an internationally renowned photographer/photojournalist and wonderful teacher with vast experience teaching workshops. He has lived in France for nearly three decades. His famous photography book, “Parisians”, published by Abbeville Press, is one of the great examples of modern street photography, and his spectacular career photographing three decades of world history and news in over ninety countries worldwide, as well as his love of teaching and sharing the passion for photography with his students, offers a wonderful context and perspective for this transformational workshop.

This 7-day workshop, Sunday to Saturday, offers students a unique journey into the heart of one of Europe's most magical regions. With its magnificent ancient architecture, its Mediterranean sun, its cobblestone streets, cafes, and country markets, Provence is contagious with what the French call "joie de vivre"- the joy of life; it's no wonder that it was here that artists like Cezanne, Gauguin, and Picasso spent so much time and where Vincent Van Gogh, at his most productive in Provence, painted many of his masterpieces. With the Alps Mountains to the east, the French Rivera, the Camargue, the Delta region of the Rhone river abundant with spectacular flora and fauna to its south, Arles, where the workshop is based, is ideally situated to explore full range of cities and country hamlets all over the region, from the theatre in Avignon to wineries of Nimes, to the mesmerizing sunsets of St. Remy, where Vincent Van Vogh painted his celebrated "Starry Night." Arles is known for its magnificent Roman architecture, its delightful cafe culture, and its many artistic offerings, it is a city with a modern pulse and an ancient soul; with few cars and winding lanes, Arles is a walker's paradise.

The workshop is focused on creating a photo story/portfolio capturing the life, beauty, color, and light of Provence. Peter Turnley will encourage students to photograph not only the beauty of the cities, villages, and region, but also the people of Provence. Students will spend at least half of each day exploring and photographing daily life in Arles and throughout Provence, and will be expected to approach their work as a storytelling process creating a photo story/portfolio, rather than thinking simply in terms of single artistic images. Students will also 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 deal to overcome any hesitations or anxiety that they might have to street photography that may be limiting their work. Students will be expected to photograph at least half of each day and as the visual focus of the workshop is to capture the reality of life, with a leaning towards a documentary approach, students will be expected to work most often independently or in small groups. Turnley is a disciple of the grand master photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and pushes students to train themselves to be attentive to the “decisive moments” of the visual world of daily life. Each day, there will be 3-4 hours of lectures, presentations, and photo review of the students work from the preceding day. Peter will discuss camera technique, intent and sense of purpose, composition, and the creative use of the camera and lens. Through the week, each student will work to create a final photo story/portfolio with photographs on a theme of their choosing. Peter will work with each student in their choice of theme, and it is not necessary at all to know ahead of the workshop what the theme will be-Peter will help you find and discover the common threads of interest in your work and help you settle on a theme no matter how narrow or broad. Turnley sees photography at its core as being about stopping a moment that one observes in order to share a response with oneself and others for all time and for the present-photography is all about having some thing to say and share about the world we live in and observe. As such, he will work with you to discover and explore the visual themes of life and environment that move you and so your visual sharing through photography can be as powerful as you would like it to be. He will review and critique your portfolio, and works-in-process, discuss careers, getting published and exhibited, and discuss and give you an idea of where you are, and the steps you need to take to become an ever more powerful photographer and communicator. Most importantly, he will help you understand the joy and personal growth associated with using ones’ eyes and the humanly rich potential of observation

There are few better places in which to do this than in Provence, a savory, sweet, and seductive region that applauds the joys of life and the little things that make it worth celebrating Peter Turnley’s Splendors of Provence Workshop will offer students a lively glimpse of this fantastic region while teaching them how to better use photography to capture and celebrate the joys of life on this or or any other journey.

 Lodging/Hotels:

 Peter will be renting a wonderful town house/home in the middle of Arles. Classes will meet here. Students are recommended to stay at a hotel in central Arles, and Peter has found six very nice hotels with different rates, all within a short walk of Peter's house. Below are the names, addresses and web sites to these hotels. There are many hotels in Arles and the hotels listed below are only recommendations-students are welcome to research and find the hotel of their choice (it is recommended that you stay in central Arles for convenience to getting to class each day). Arles is a popular summer destination and we suggest you book a room as soon as possible to get the best rate.

Hotel Constantin: 2 Star 9 Boulevard de Craponne, Arles 13200

France Hotel Acacias: 2 Star 2 Rue de la Cavalerie, Arles 13200

France Le Calendal: 3 Star 5 rue Porte de Laure, Arles 13200

France Hotel De L'Amphitheatre: 3 Star 5-7, rue Diderot, Arles 13200

France Hotel du Forum: 3 Star 10, place du Forum, Arles 13200

France Hotel Particulier: 4 Star Rue de la Monnaie, Arles 13200

France Le Boatel: Boat Hotel A Quai Au Pont Van Gogh, 13200

Travel From the United States to Arles, France:

Daily flights available from many U.S. Cities to Paris’s Charles De Gaulle Airport

From PARIS:

Plane: Multiple carriers fly shuttle flights from Paris-Charles De Gaulle to the nearby Provence cities of Marseille and Avignon. Short trains, taxis, and bus rides connect from these airports to Arles.

Train: At least five daily high-speed TGV trains depart from Paris’s Gare de Lyon station to Arles's central train station. The journey is approximately four hours to central Arles.

Rental Cars: Rental cars are available from the airports in Marseille, Avignon, and in downtown Arles. Many US car rental companies have offices throughout France. It is not imperative that students have a rental car during the workshop, as there are trains and buses to local towns and destinations in Provence, but for those that may wish to be able to get around the region easily, having a rental car is a convenient option.

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.

Arrival:

Plan to arrive on Saturday, August 14th, or latest by noon on Sunday August 15th. The first workshop session will begin at 2pm on Sunday, August 15. Flights from the States are often in the evenings, which mean you could fly Friday evening, and make your plane or train connection to Arles on Saturday, August 14th and give yourself an evening to get acclimated before the workshop begins on Sunday.

Departures:

The workshop ends at noon, Saturday, August 21, 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 cd, for review each day with Peter Turnley. Students will be encouraged to choose from the outset if they want to see their work in color or in black and white, and they will be encouraged to stick to their choice of one of the other throughout the workshop.

What to Bring:

Besides your SLR digital cameras, bring a body of your creative work with you to share—a portfolio or CD of images. 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 G cards are recommended), extra batteries and necessary battery chargers. Your 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 Make sure you have a back-up system on which to download each day’s work. This can be your laptop, a portable external hard drive storage device, flash drive, or CDs or DVDs. You will need a means of getting your edited images in a folder to Peter each day for review—flash drives are the most practical, but you can also use an external hard drive, or cd or DVD.

Research and Preparation:  

Research and preparation are important parts of any adventure. There are many very thorough guidebooks to Provence, and extensive information about Arles and Provence 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. Expect to be paying around $50 a day on meals.

Further Information: Arles Office of Tourism