To students at the Day of the Dead workshop, Oaxaca

We begin our creativity workshop in Oaxaca on October 24, and there are a few places left. Here is the letter I am sending to participants about how we will work.

I’ve just broken out of a whirlwind of activity to see that our workshop is only a few weeks off, and a wave of excitement has hit me. This wave always breaks just before a class, and it reminds me that I am heading out into a world that is more about possibilities than conclusions.  And the work of the workshops is to wade into these possibilities and manifest them as much as possible, not to analyze and control them.

 This is different than the way most of us come to function in the world, at least after the age of about 5. From birth to 5 we “play”, then we get serious and start school.

But if you think of the vast amount of growth we accomplish in those first 5 years, we must see that there are lessons for us in that play. There may be reasons begin focusing on outcomes at 5, but there are also reasons to resume playing at any point.

And that is a lot of what our workshop will be about.

You may be thinking Well, that sounds interesting, but what are we actually going to do? It is a fair question, and I want you to know that I have answers.

Of course, I’m not going to tell you what they are, because surprise is part of the way they work, but I’ll drop some hints.

To begin with, it might help to think of it as a creativity refresher class, more than a photography class, though we will be using photography throughout and will come home with new pictures. And since you have been creative from birth, you already have what you need to make them. You’e kind of like Moliere’s Bourgeois Gentleman who is delighted to discover he speaks Prose. Like this gentleman, you don’t have to learn the language of creativity, but you will begin to work with consciously and learn some new ways to get at it.

To do this, we will begin our time with a series of exercises that have very specific starting points and actions, so you will know where to begin day by day. They produce experiences in a sequence that is more stochastic than linear. What you will dour main task is to go at them with a lot of energy.

In general, we will be using exercises in areas other than photography to practice just seeing without regard to seeing pictures.  For these exercises we will set the camera aside so you can see that you see. Then we will pick the camera up again and carry whatever new seeing we have done into the photographic realm to allow it to work there. 

We will be doing this in the context of an unusual event, in a beautiful vibrant city. Sometimes such strong “subject matter” can actually interfere with our real art work, since the making of our art is about being fully present wherever we are. The danger is that we might be tempted to let a fascinating place do the lifting for us.  But I think we have time enough both to work internally with our creativity and to practice it in the world.

I have been doing this workshop---actually it is different every time—for many years. And many years ago both Enrique Cervera and Jonathan Safir were in it. So it is a particular pleasure to have them joining in the teaching and supporting of all of us. You might know one or the other of them, or you have read their bios, but in brief, Enrique is a photographer/artist/teacher in Mexico, and Jonathan is an artist/filmmaker/teacher who has been working on a film about the Day of the Dead in Oaxaca for 5 years. So these two are going to make this event special for all of us. They have done the setup, scouting and production, and have made wonderful connections in the museums and other venues in Oaxaca. And as co-teachers they will be stretching and supporting us each day.

One of the wonderful things about any workshop is that it suspends all the little micro-gravities of our lives—our jobs, our families, the obligations that preoccupy us—and lets us just float. Another big thing is that we get to work in concert with others so we can share responses, insights and strengths, something artists don’t really do that much. A third is that we get to explore other ways of being ourselves.

When I think about how this all  works, the model is more like laying out a string of dominos in some new direction, as opposed to laying up another course of bricks in the edifice of ourselves.

It sounds like fun and a little alarming at the same time…and it is. But you’ll be well supported in your work, and you’ll tend to find that the things you might be apprehensive about were never a problem at all.

A few practical matters:

The point is to generate pictures out of your experiences so that we can look at and learn from them. So you should certainly have a laptop to process and edit on.

You probably won’t need lights. Better to see the light that is there. A tripod might come in handy, though, in case there isn’t enough of it for hand-holding.

If you want to read a bit about how I approach things, I have a number of articles about the creative process on my website, mostly written for Communication Arts, along with some book introductions and graduation speeches.

So that’s if for just now. If you have any questions you can email me at sean@seankernan.com, Enrique at pix@lalux.com, or Jonathan at jonsafir@yahoo.com. We’ll answer as best we can.

Other than that, we’re all really looking forward to seeing you and working with you soon in Oaxaca. It will be good, hard work, serious and fun.