Robert Knoth (NL)
WORKSHOP
I am as much a storyteller as I am a photographer; photography for me is just a tool
to tell stories I am interested in. Whether you write, are a filmmakers or photographer,
you always need a good narrative. Without a good narrative a documentary maker not have a story.
The hardest part of any photo documentary is not the making of beautiful photos, but finding a narrative which explains the story or issue to your audience. How do you build up a story through images, which images are necessary, which are not? Which aspects should I address in my documentary? How do I visualize those elements? Where do I find those elements?
Do you try and produce an overall story of complex issues as Climate Change or the war in Afghanistan or alternatively, is it better to zoom in on personals stories through which you can tell that story? What kind of photographic language or techniques should I use to produce the strongest possible story? Am I going to shock my audience or am I going to be more subtle and lure my audience into watching?
These are all questions you have to think about before you actually begin photographing. Your work is going to be much easier if you have some sort of usable framework rather than working in the blind.
I hope at the end of the workshop participants have a better understanding of the choices one has to make as a photographer. Throughout the workshop we will discuss
the work participants have been making in the previous weeks and during the festival.
I will also show examples of my work in cases where I went wrong and where I succeeded producing a good story.
BIO
Early nineties I started photographing and have been working as a professional photographer and photojournalist since 1993 for national and international media.
Since 2001 I work as an autonomous photographer spending most of my time on long term projects.
In the last 13 years I have been working in Afghanistan, Angola, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Guinea, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kososvo , Kenia, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone Sudan, Somalia, Tajikistan, United States, and the Ukraine. Some of the conflicts like in Afghanistan or Sierra Leone, I have been following and covering for years.
PUBLICATIONS UNITED KINGDOM: Guardian, Sunday Telegraph, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Herald, Sunday Times, Economist, Untold Magazine, Instinct Magazine, Big Issue, New Scientist, BBC World, British Journal of Photography, and FOTO 8.
GERMANY: Suddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, Stern, Der Spiegel, Frankfurter Algemeiner, Tagezeitung, Berliner Morgenpost, Berliner Zeitung, Playboy, Greenpeace Magazine, PhotoNews and Weltwoche
NETHERLANDS AND BELGIUM: NRC and NRC Magazine, De Volkskrant, Volkskrant Magazine, National Geographic, Nieuwe Revu, Vrij Nederland, Identity Matters, Focus, Photo Professional, Algemeen Dagblad, Trouw, Sam Sam, Elsevier, Onze Wereld, FNV Magazine, Internationale Samenwerking, Marie Claire, Standaard Magazine, Maxim en de Morgen.
OTHER IN EUROPE: Sette, La Repubblica, Internazionale, Sole24Ore Magazine, Le Monde, Especial, Grand Reportagem, Svenska Dagbladet, Moscow Times.
REST OF THE WORLD: Australian Photo Journalist, Epoca Brazil, Creative Photography Iran, Earth Magazine Taiwan, South China Morning Post, Lifeweek, Southern Peoples Weekly, Beijng Times, China Daily, Outdoor Magazine, China Photo Magazine, DPNet.com, Hindustan Times and Financial Express India.
UNITED STATES: New York Times, US News and World, Mother Jones, Chicago Tribune, Illinois Times, Rangefinder Magazine, CNN and Pixelpress.
AWARDS NETHERLANDS
1995 Silver Camera – Sports with Le Tour de Faso
1996 Silver Camera – Documentary with civil war in Afghanistan
1997 Silver Camera – Portraits of amputees in Sierra Leone
1998 Silver Camera – Documentary with civil war in Somalia
1999 Silver Camera – Documentary with civil war in Angola
1999 Award by Dutch Refugees Council with Somalia
AWARDS INTERNATIONAL
2000 World Press Photo – People in the News with civil war in Angola
2000 Photo Prize Prague – Civil war in Angola
2001 PDN Awards – War in Guinea
2006 Premio Miran Hrovatin Award – Aftermath Chernobyl accident
2006 World Press Photo – Portraits aftermath Chernobyl accident
2007 CHIPP Awards Bejing – Aftermath Chernobyl accident
MAIN EXHIBITIONS
1994 Kunsthal Rotterdam
1996 Museum for Ethnology Leiden
1999 Atrium The Hague
2000 Photo Fusion London
2001 Photo Festival Naarden
2002 Moscow House of Photography Moscow
2002 Visa Pour ‘l Image Perpigan
2002 Spitz Gallery London
2003 Photo Institute Rotterdam
2003 Photo Festival Naarden
2003 Myhelan Culture Arts Center New Jersey
2003 Center of Photography St Petersburg
2003 Art Salon Utrecht
2004 Redux Center for Contemporary Art Charleston
2004 Starland Gallery Savannah Georgia
2005 Gallery Rijen Listopad Prague
2005 Gallery Vankovka Brno
2006 Gallery ‘l Opera Ostrava
2006 Museum of Natural History Vienna
2006 Photokina Cologne
2006 Kampfnagel Hamburg
2006 Gasteig Munchen
2006 Oxo Gallery London
2006 Center of Images Mexico City
2006 Center of Contemporary Art Kiev
2006 Place des Arts Montreal
2006 Photo Journalist Centre Moscow
2006 Thamova Hala Prague
2006 International Photo Festival/Auditorium Della Musica Rome
2006 Fnac Gallery Paris
2006 Fnac Gallery Madrid
2006 United Nations New York
2007 Kunsthal Rotterdam
2008 Australian Center of Photography (upcoming)
CORPERATE
Dutch Railways, Rabobank, Skobi BV, Mesos Utrecht, Municipality of Utrecht, FNV, Schoep en van der Toorn.
CAMPAIGNS for
Medecin Sans Frontieres, Amnesty International, Greenpeace International,
Stichting Vluchteling.
BOOKS
Ducth Pop Heroes, a series of portraits of famous Dutch pop musicians.
Published by Luitingh Sijthoff in 1993.
Mayak, Half Life, living with a nuclear disaster by Greenpeace International in 2002
Certificate no. 000358/, nuclear disasters in the former Soviet Union, published in English, French, Dutch and Russian by Mets en Schilt in 2006.
