Storytelling with pictures
with Jane Evelyn Atwood
DATES: JUNE 15 - 24, 2026
5 classes (M, W, F, M, W)
9:00 am PST / 11:00 am CST / 12:00 pm EST / 6:00 pm Paris
Telling a story with pictures is just like writing with words. Something is seen, or thought of, or imagined. Appropriate images are made and put together, one after another, to coherently tell the story—be it abstract, conceptual, documentary or journalistic. This is storytelling with photos, and this is what this workshop will be about.
- Jane Evelyn Atwood
One of the most revered and iconic photographers of our time comes to Nobechi Creative once again.
Jane Evelyn Atwood will share selected photo stories and explain her working method; her books are available for comment, questions, and consultation.
Students will be given one assignment to be completed during class sessions. Workshop stories, as well as students’ past work, are critiqued and discussed. The workshop closes with the final editing and presentation of each story, one per student.
Students will need a computer for image processing and editing. All sessions will be recorded and made available to rewatch for participants via a private video link.
The work I do is usually hard and difficult – but this is a fun workshop!
We will see my work and discuss how and why I do what I do. Students will be encouraged to ask all the questions they’ve always been afraid to ask a “real photographer”…..! My books concern women in prison, prostitution, landmine victims, Haiti, blind children, etc.
We will critique, as a class, the past work brought in by each student. So please come with work you would like critiqued, seen, and/or discussed. This is not to put anyone on the spot but to encourage you and guide you to do better.
After feedback on past work, the students will go out and take pictures for a pre-determined “assignment.” This assignment will be wide open so as to accommodate everyone. Photos may be abstract, realistic, photojournalistic, fine art, portraits, people, landscapes, or whatever…! But there must be a coherence in the final selection of pictures, edited down to no fewer than 5 images and no more than 10. These photos must tell a story.
By the end of the workshop, we will have looked at every story and discussed what was difficult, what worked, and what didn’t.
This is a workshop that provides class discussion and exchange between students and myself, as well as a short taste of what it’s like to imagine a story or find a story - and manage to tell that story with images that work.
Welcome!
JEA
Additional information
Class level: Intermediate-to-advanced amateurs and professional photographers.
Required equipment:
Digital camera
Computer with internet connection
Zoom account (free subscription level is sufficient) (www.zoom.us)
Adobe Lightroom, Bridge, or other file organization software
Class duration: 2.5 hours
Maximum class size: 8 Students
TUITION
$1950 per student
ABOUT JANE EVELYN ATWOOD
Jane Evelyn Atwood was born in New York and has been living in France since 1971. Her work reflects a deep involvement with her subjects over long periods of time. Fascinated by people and by the idea of exclusion, she has managed to penetrate worlds that most of us do not know, or choose to ignore.
In 1976, Atwood bought her first camera and began taking pictures of a group of street prostitutes in Paris. It was partly on the strength of these photographs that she received the first W . Eugene Smith Award, in 1980, for another story she had just started: blind children. Prior to this, she had never published a photo.
Atwood limits her stories to those which truly compel her, devoting to each subject the time necessary (in some cases, years) to explore it in depth. In 1989 she started to photograph incarcerated women, eventually managing to gain access to some of the world's worst penitentiaries and jails, including death row. This monumental ten-year undertaking (encompassing forty prisons in nine countries of Europe and Eastern Europe, and the United States) remains the definitive photographic work on women in prison to date. It was published as a book in both English and French in 2000 and continues to be exhibited internationally.
Testimonials
“Thanks, Nobechi Creative for hosting this unique workshop. It gave me an understanding of the process of producing a body of work around a theme or story. And by listening to Janes’s fascinating experiences and by watching my peers, an awareness of the need to balance against professional objectivity. Another great course from Nobechi! ”
“This class was a game-changer. Jane is a superb teacher who leads with appreciation, gives clear feedback, and guides with a firm yet sensitive hand. I gained a clearer understanding of my own work that is leading to a long-term project I am developing. This is a class I’d take again as Jane’s own projects model and inspire. She makes learning expansive with practical feedback, encouraging direction, and specific suggestions. Loved this experience, it is impacting both current and future work. ”
“I got so much valued learning in the workshop with Jane as she taught us about finding intent and vision for crafting stories and making strong images to reflect the narrative of our subject. After each class discussion and feedback, I would come away with more questions to approach my photography, which was challenging, but I knew it would help me dive deeper into my work. And I am now excited to have renewed motivation and curiosity to continue photographing with the project I had worked on from the workshop. ”