“Sculpting photography” is the title of a workshop that I have been conducting for years and that I have presented in various Italian realities. The title has always remained the same but over time the contents have changed somewhat. I tried to adapt it to the needs, timing and different contexts that presented themselves to me from time to time. Thanks to the initiative and invitation of the Italian Street Photo Festival, for the first time, I had the opportunity to think of a different formula, more articulated and distributed over a whole month. A formula that offers several advantages, among these, the possibility of assimilating and deepening the contents of each single lesson, and of being able to work on it on a weekly basis, without the forced haste that characterizes traditional workshops.
However, and despite the various changes, some features of the laboratory have remained unchanged. Starting with the title and the use of a term, “sculpt” (borrowed from a beautiful book by Tarkovsky), which I really like. Sculpting, or “removing”, “proceeding by subtraction”, recognizing the primacy and importance of the authorial intervention that is the basis of a project or a photograph. Here is a first indication for those wishing to participate in the workshop: sharing the idea of ​​photography as the result of an intervention and the expression of a subjectivity.
Another feature has remained unchanged and concerns the approach. I have always thought of photography in relation to the other arts. My research was inspired by literature, cinema, painting, theater. Photography, since its discovery, has always interacted with other forms of art. This is the premise of the second indication that I want to give to those who will participate in the workshop: that of an “openness” to dialogue, to contamination, to inspiration, to the contribution that other arts can make to photography. I will try to favor this type of approach, proposing a path in 4 lessons focused on the relationship between photography and other 20th century arts.
A third characteristic and indication: photography as a planning tool, for the achievement of a personal and recognizable style, both from a technical-aesthetic point of view, and from a poetic point of view. Planning, that is: to find a dimension of its own and coherent with a personal experience and background. This is why the workshop will be open to any type of genre or technique: from natural and urban landscape to portrait, from still life to street.

1. Structure
The workshop will be structured in 4 lessons of two and a half hours. Each lesson will be divided into two parts. The first part will be dedicated to the reading of the participants’ works (a portfolio reading of max 15 images in the very first meeting) produced on the basis of the information provided during each lesson. The second part will be devoted to a specific theme that will have as its object the relationship between photography and an author or artistic movement of the nineteenth century, both from a theoretical point of view and from a technical point of view and photographic experimentation.

2. Who is it for?
The workshop is aimed at enthusiasts of any level, skill, technique and photographic genre.

3. What you need
By the date of the first lesson, a portfolio of up to 15 images (base 1200 px) must be sent to gabrielecroppi@gmail.com (it is preferable to send a single project).
For the remaining lessons, availability is required to work on the proposed topics and present the images that will be discussed during subsequent meetings.