9/11: Looking Back, Twenty-five Years On
Twenty-five years after September 11, I return to the photographs that became Empty Sky, remembering the people, the city and what those images mean to me now.
© Steve Simon
Why the Workshop?
I believe deeply in photography workshops because I’ve lived their impact. A great workshop doesn’t just teach you how to make better photographs. It changes how you see. It sharpens your awareness and reminds you why you picked up a camera in the first place. One did that for me, and it set my life on an entirely new course.
A workshop creates conditions that are almost impossible to reproduce on your own. You are surrounded by passionate photographers, giving more time and attention to picture-making than daily life usually allows. Everyone is looking hard, taking chances and working with an intensity that feeds the whole group.
When all of those elements come together, something begins to happen. It can feel a little like nuclear fusion: energy builds, ideas pass from one photographer to another and photographs are made that could only have been made in that particular place, with those particular people, at that moment. It is one reason so many participants do some of their best work during a workshop.
I see the change from the first critique to the last. People become more confident, more willing to take risks and more alert to what their photographs are asking for. I feel it too. Other people’s work inspires me, challenges me and inevitably finds its way into how I see and what I make.
The best workshop experiences stay with you long after the bags are unpacked and the memory cards are cleared. Sometimes it’s a single sentence, a brief exchange or a small shift in how you approach a scene.
This is why I teach. Workshops create momentum. They reconnect you to curiosity, help you see what’s possible and give you permission to slow down, pay attention and fully commit to the work.
