Magnum and LCC Intensive Documentary Photography Course
Originally written September 2019 for amandashootsbands.com

It’s been just over a month since I arrived in London, and completed the Magnum and LCC Intensive Documentary Photography Course.  After multiple face masks, coffees and squirrel watching sessions, the time has come to share my thoughts on spending three weeks with the greats.

Prior to starting the course, we were asked to come up with an idea for a story to work on for the duration of the program, pitch it to the class, and have 20-something students and a couple of tutors critique our plans.

My project was centred around Rough Trade East - a record store with a decent interior and interesting details to photograph in it.  There’s live music each week and if you’re in there long enough you’ll notice people holding the same stance and head tilt while they examine records and cover art.

Over the course of the three weeks, we were given six days to create images for our final project, and in-between shooting we were either at tutorials or critique sessions at LCC in Elephant and Castle or Magnum Photos in East London.

The program was as the title states, intense, and packed full of useful lessons from the tutors - in particular Sonia Jeunet who provided amazing insight on the business side of photography, and Rafal Milach who helped us bring our final stories to life.

I was also thrilled to attend a session with Mark Power, who has become a real inspiration to me since learning about him and his work.  During Mark’s time with us, he shared his infamous Shipping Forecast film, which I adore and would like to incorporate into my own work in the future. 

If studying with Magnum Photos sounds like a bit of you, check out the Learn with Magnum page on their site.

The set of colour images was created using a Fujifilm Quicksnap single-use camera, developed and scanned by Snappy Snaps in Aldgate, London.  They were part of an experiment suggested by one of the guest tutors, and while none of them were used for my final project, they were a load of fun to make, so I thought they may as well be included here for you to enjoy¯\_㋡_/¯

These were from a night with Krafty Kuts and Chali 2na celebrating the release of their album titled Adventures of a Reluctant Super Hero.

Gear used on this course:
Fujifilm X100.
Canon 7D with Sigma 50mm 1.4 DG HSM lens.
Canon 7D Mark II with Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 DC HSM ART lens.
Edited / Processed with Lightroom.