We’re all guilty of boring friends and foes on Facebook with our awful selfies and photos, full of bad light, boring backgrounds, and stupid smiles. Sigrid from Moorsel wants to change all that with a workshop on smartphone photos.
“One of my favorite photographers is the official photographer of French president Emmanuel Macron, Soazig de La Moissonnière. She is a master of composition and tells a very good story with her photos. A regular selfie of a politician often says nothing. But if you think about how to present something visually, then you can make a much more powerful statement,” says Sigrid Schollen from Glow photography.
Sigrid also greatly admires the photographers and photojournalists Elliott Erwitt and Henri Cartier-Bresson. “He started with a very small device, the Leica M. That was revolutionary at the time and actually somewhat comparable to today’s smartphone. With a Leica M, you could photograph people on the street undisturbed because it doesn’t make any noise.”
“I prefer to photograph people, action on a stage, and the environment and buildings.”
Aren’t smartphones debasing photos that we lose every time we need to replace a phone? “Photography should be very accessible to everyone. The more people are involved in photography, the more creative it becomes.”
“Sometimes people have no idea of the impact of a composition, the use of light, framing, and color. If you then take better photos, you will also have more impact. Those are very classic rules,” says Sigrid.
“You don’t have to become a top photographer. But think, for example, of a mother who wants to photograph her children. With better knowledge of the use of light and framing, the photos will be more appealing and tell a story, a beautiful document for later.”
Can you follow the course if you speak French, English or other languages? “That’s no problem. In the course, I’m actually very little concerned with text. The intention is to practice with concrete examples of composition, light, color, and by walking through Tervuren to give tips on how to take beautiful photos. There’s also a brief introduction to photo editing.”
Starting on Thursday 18 April 2024, Sigrid will be giving a course on smartphone photography. More details on Glow’s Facebook workshop page.
