It seems a fact that participating in a workshop with other people like yourself is a rewarding experience. One third of the participants in my photo workshops who are return students, which means they did one or more workshops with me in the past
It bugged me for years why people would come back when I had “already taught them everything there is to learn”. On the other hand, if they didn’t get to know all there is to know, you would presume them so unhappy they would never buy another workshop.
And yet, here they are again!
I could pride myself that I am so awesome they can't get enough of me - but self-glorification is not the story today, as you will learn in a minute.
One of the reasons people come back to do the same thing again, with a new group of people, I learned this year, is that “Thorsten always attract great people to his workshops.”
It’s true, of the more than a thousand people I have had the privilege to work with in my workshops ... almost all are perfect specimens of humanity. Only two out of a thousand should have been doing something else those three days.
Real-life is the new luxury
Being there with others, in the moment, feeling the energy and enthusiasm for three days. Presence is the new alpha. They’re the last place where the signal is uncompressed.
With the possibility of meeting thousands of other people every day online on social media and in forums, what stands out is meeting others in real life. Real-life interaction is the dope.
Together is better
One of my greatest joys is to watch families do the workshop together, share the same passion. Bringing family or friends to the Overgaard Workshop is a great idea. Fathers have brought their sons and daughters, and mothers have brought their sons.
It's a great experience to share, and great to have a mutual interest to do together - one that is about exploring, observing, and producing something lasting. A great gift to the relationship, and possibly lifelong gift for teens.
Nick and Kathryn have done a few of my workshops. I found it amusing that they had divided the roles in the first workshop: One did black-and-white and the other did color. Doing the same but not competing seemed a good idea.
More importantly, I learned a valuable logic from them: They only have hobbies they can do together. Nick being an executive for an international company and Kathryn being an artist who works from home, their time together is literally limited by his travel. “We made the rule that we only have hobbies we both enjoy,” Nick told me. “That’s why I don’t play golf.”
John and Rebecca had a different story. After the earthquake in New Zealand that laid their house in ruins was a few seconds from ending Rebecca’s life (her car was buried under rocks seconds after she left it), they decided to go see the world and enjoy each other and life. One stop in their adventure was my workshop in San Francisco.
Visiting my workshop student Sascha Mergner and his wife Leyla as I was passing through Frankfurt a few months ago, I got to meet a happy family and I asked how they made it happen.
“We knew of each other in school for some years, and even it took some time, we made the connection and then married within a year.”
I like stories of people who met at a young age and stayed together. I liked it even better when Sacha told me that back then, a friend of his wondered why he would settle down before he had explored the world as a young and carefree man, to which Sascha answered, “That’s why I marry now, so I can explore the world with my wife.”
I’ve heard it so many times, and probably so have you, "that it’s good for a young person to meet many partners before they decide." It’s complete bollocks, and Sascha and Leyla is the proof of it.
The ideal must be to meet someone and be together for life, build a family and stay together through thick and thin. Focus on togetherness rather than just your own entertainment.
I have had quite a few mothers or fathers who brought their son or daughter to the workshop.
I can’t stress how valuable I feel it is to share a passion with other family members, and photography is just awesome: Being together and finding joy in any corner of the world, not as a tourist chasing must-see locations with busloads of with selfie-stick people, but as photographers finding joy in quiet corners, beautiful light and atmosphere to be captured.
I feel that as a parent, you should make sure your children get to have the skill to make something. Like a photo, a drawing, a written story ... a life. The age from 10 to 18 is a battleground, and by the time a teen get out on the other side, they should be able to stand on their own two feet.
How do you teach a teenager to be themselves when all they seemingly want to be, is to be like everybody else, to be popular?
Give them something they can do.
The ever-present screens and automatic everything create a dull person that depends on others to entertain them. You can live a life like that, have a career and earn money. But what about the life outside of the working hours, not to mention after retirement ... what to do if you can’t do anything?
I have had great success with teenagers in the workshops, and I have often felt that a parent was relieved and more thankful to me than they need be, after they saw the workshop ignited a passion.
Not so surprising to me, because it works on kids the same way it works on adults: that when you “Always Wear A Camera” for three days and don’t look at screens, you will eventually come up with something.
I could say “Always Wear A Piece of Blank Paper” because eventually you will put something on that empty paper, just as you will eventually find something to put on that empty camera sensor. It will be something coming from you, not from a television or social media algorithm designed to glue your attention.
Amazing what a person is able to do. Create art, create friendships, create relations, and create moments.
It’s not always easy to find something to have in common with a teenager, but photography seems to work.
Chris Murman and I have spent time together in a few workshops. He’s made it his work to unite an entire neighborhood into one big hugging family through his magazine that “deliver neighborhood connections” with images and articles about what is going on in the neighborhood, every month.
He goes exploring with his Leica and a Montblanc notebook, and some weeks later the families in the neighborhood may see themselves featured in the magazine.
He sends me the printed magazine, always with Post-It notes attached to some of the pages, which cracks me up: because they read, “My grandkids,” "My wife" and similar acknowledgements to show that ‘this is my family.’ It reminds that there is such a thing as a family man.
Happy Holidays
This was my holiday-season letter, and maybe my way of trying to influence your New Year’s resolutions towards contributing to the life and happiness of the people around you. Enjoy your partner or spouse, strengthen your family and enjoy the people around you.
No matter what you thought of it all, just remember one thing:
Feel welcome to email me any comments, ideas, questions – or just send me a photo. Bon voyage with it all. Sign up for the newsletter to stay in the know. As always, feel free to email me with suggestions, questions and ideas. And hope to see you in a workshop one day soon.
Thorsten von Overgaard is a Danish-American multiple award-winning photographer, known for his writings about photography and Leica cameras. He travels to more than 25 countries a year, photographing and teaching workshops to photographers. Some photos are available as signed editions via galleries or online. For specific photography needs, contact Thorsten Overgaard via email.
You can follow Thorsten Overgaard at his television channel magicoflight.tv.
