Project New Orleans 2012

Photography as a Force of Change

in collaboration with

Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Dates: April 11 - 15, 2012
Cost: $1650
Please contact our office for itinerary and travel information.

• Momenta provides each student with a detailed questionnaire, we use this to match each student's interest with a nonprofit in NOLA
• Each student will get their own nonprofit to work with, based on feedback from our pre-workshop student questionnaire
• Momenta will handle all pre-workshop logistics for nonprofit assignments including introductions to each nonprofit occuring about 1-2 weeks before the workshop
• Student work benefits small, local nonprofits in their need to publicize and project their activities to new audiences
• Momenta presents an intensive instruction on Photo Mechanic and photo asset archiving
• Students receive daily personal reviews with lead instructor and Momenta staff
• Nightly slideshows, lectures and group critiques
• Daily mentoring and story development editing one-on-one with an instructor for at least one hour a day
• Voluntary multimedia instruction for interested attendees
• Lectures on narrative storytelling, elements of a photo story and history of documentary photography
• Final slide show and party hosted by Momenta for all students, nonprofit staff, general public and members of the photographic community

If you've never been to New Orleans, you are in for a wonderful adventure when you join Momenta in 2012. This is our most popular domestic workshop and it fills up every year.

During your trip with us, you will not only learn to work directly with a nonprofit on a relevant photo story but will also receive lectures on business models for making nonprofit photography work for you, including how to market your portfolio for nonprofit clients as well as financing a personal project through grant writing and public fund raising.

New Orleans has been our host for the last four years for this amazing workshop and the welcome from the nonprofits every year is overwhelmingly positive. The city is alive with nonprofit and community groups dedicated to rebuilding the Big Easy back to its former glory and helping the areas of the city that are still suffering, years later, from the after effects of Katrina. 

Momenta will offer to connect photographers with nonprofit organizations we have worked with in the past. However, we encourage more advanced photographers to find their own photo story or charity of their choice. Don't worry! Our team of instructors and staff will guide you every step of the way if you choose to venture down this road.

Every day of the workshop, Momenta staff and instructors with work with you to develop a photo story that is close to your personal vision and embodies the workshop theme of "hope and recovery." We do this through daily editing schedules shere you meet one-on-one with your instructor for about one hour each evening.

A great addition to our curriculum in 2012 is the collaboration of Momenta Workshops and Leica Camera during of our series of Project Workshops. All photographers on this trip will have the opportunity to borrow and use the digital Leica M9s and lenses to use in their photo stories. We will have a special lecture during orientation about the use of Leicas and their great history in documentary photography.

Students are also encouraged to record audio for multimedia presentations and use in their portfolio. Momenta will have audio gear on hand to borrow. Multimedia instruction and editing will also be available for interested attendees.

On the final night of the workshop, Momenta hosts a student slide show presentation for all the organizations who participated in the workshop as well as neighborhood residents, local photographers, journalists, members of the New Orleans Photo Alliance and workshop attendees. The slideshow is truly a moving and emotional experience for everyone involved. It creates a wonderful atmosphere of camaraderie and celebration to honor our time together!

We hope you can join us for this very special workshop experience in New Orleans, Louisiana, one of America's most vibrant and exciting cities!

Workshop fees include: one-on-one editing with instructors on a daily basis, personal portfolio reviews, a student handbook, all handouts and workshop materials, daily slideshows and lectures, software and equipment training, an opening night dinner and our final celebration and slide show party provided by Momenta for the public at our headquarters in the Garden District. 

Workshop fees do not include: meals, transportation, hotel accommodations. Momenta does offer suggestions for housing and transportation deals in New Orleans.

Please contact our staff for a trip itinerary and travel arrangement questions.

About your Instructors

From Pennsylvania Avenue to Bourbon Street, Chris Usher and Jamie Rose have worked together photographing politics and major news events in our Nation's Capital for nearly a decade. They met on assignment covering the President many years ago and have been colleagues and friends ever since. Chris and Jamie have taught this workshop together four times now and are so elated to continue this great workshop series in 2012. 

For the last six years, Chris Usher has been dedicated to the continuing coverage of the human diaspora created by Hurricane Katrina. Chris' work was initially featured in TIME magazine and later published into a book, One of Us. When not covering the White House and Congress, he works and visits in his "second home" of New Orleans as much as possible. 

Jamie Rose is our Director of Workshops and has been a documentarian for the last decade. She covered the effects of Hurricane Katrina for nonprofit organizations, which lead her to create this workshop in New Orleans with Chris. Jamie believes strongly in the power documentary photography to give back to all the providers working so hard to help in the recovery and rebuilding of the Crescent City. 

Learn more about your instructors by visiting Our Instructors page.

For More Information

Please email our staff for further information at info@momentaworkshops.com. You may also reach Director of Workshops Jamie Rose between the hours of 9:00 a.m - 5 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday at our offices at 202.688.1448.

Please contact us for more information about this workshop today!