I asked my 2009 Foundation Workshop team to send me their thoughts and personal favorite images from their week in Dallas.
What follows is a selection of their top five pictures culled from thousands. Here’s how it worked.
On Monday night each received an assignment, reflecting an average daily newspaper assignment.
On Tuesday, shooting began and each received one-on-one on-site mentoring by team mentors Sergio, Anja Schlein and David Murray.
Evenings were spent in late night team picture editing sessions utilizing the savvy computer prowess of team assistant Jay Premack.
The shoots were completed Wednesday night. Editing began again that evening into the early morning hours.
On Thursday, stories were finalized and presentations were shown during the dinner finale.
I hope you enjoy their words and images
~ Amy
SPCA of Texas | Photographs by Daniel Chin
“I take pictures. Does that mean that I am a photographer?”
“This verb “to be”. What is this incessant need to define myself in the form of this verb “to be,”
as if I could ever find just that right mix of adjectives to finally contain and thereby understand myself.”
“Even in this pursuit to define, I find myself only frustrated by the limitations of those words.”
“Enough with words. So I take pictures.”
~ Daniel
Sunstone Yoga | Photographs by Britt Bailey
“These images were shot at the Sunstone Yoga Teacher Training Program, the core of which are the
twice daily 90 minute Fire Yoga classes, in a room where the temperature hovered around 101 degrees.”
“Spending time with these women, in that setting, had a profound effect on me, which was
magnified by the parallel emotional experience I was going through at Foundation.
There is the figure of speech that to get at the essence of anything, you have to be willing to leap into the fire.”
“I don’t know that I managed to bring back images that showed what I truly felt and saw in the company of these women,
but these images are as close as I could get at that time. I learned from that experience what it took for me personally,
to “get in there,” to take that leap into a world of openness and connectedness, heat and light.
The women I met at Sunstone Yoga are so much better at all of this than I was.
They held the door open for me. They were my guides.”
“I came home from FW7 feeling both broken and strengthened, and more than anything,
enlightened by those who shine so much brighter than I do.”
“I owe a debt of gratitude to all who helped me…Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
~ Britt
Plano Super Bowl | Photographs by Marcin Czech
” I learned that strangers will gladly let you into their lives and hearts when you stop being scared of them.”
~ Marcin
Dirty Dawgz | Photographs by Erin Beach
“My time at Foundation was spent partially covered in dog hair at the Dirty Dawgz Dog Wash and Spa.”
“Initially my story was going to focus on the the couple who worked in the store.
After the first night of editing it was clear my attention needed to be on the lives of the pets.
I was pushed to go weird with my work and the next morning at the salon a crazy one-glaucoma-eyed dog walks in.
I knew it was going to be an interesting day.”
“The man who owns the dog with the blue rhinestone collar also has a pig that wears a matching pink rhinestone collar.
It was a very enlightening way to spend a week.”
~ Erin
Allen Skate Park | Photographs by Scott Williams
“For the first time in my life, I feel like a real photographer.”
~ Scott
