For a group of about thirty architecture students at CEPT who take a digital photography class we’ve set up the following exercise:
Exploration of a stepwell, Dada Harir in Ahmedabad, based on four different approaches. Photography is first of all a transformation of reality. Technically photography is about light-dark, focused-unfocused, color and composition, but decisive is the point of view. Photo’s that combine the subject and your personal thoughts, associations, reflections, fascination are more interesting. On the other hand to be communicative beyond the personal, a good photo is also related to the subject. The good photo tells something about the subject photographed and its context as well as about the photographer and his/her position. As a consequence the approach of a subject will contribute to the way the final photowork will be made and presented. To get a feel for this sense of how a point of departure defines the point of view of a photographer we propose the following exercise:
Step one (Saturday)
Four randomly composed groups 1-2-3-4 each pick up a task before the members start to make their final photo(’s)
1 the members of the first group make twenty drawings in/around the stepwell. Big small, color, black and white, that is up to you.
2 this group ventures out in and around Dada Harir and its neighborhood to enquire about the stepwell. Talk to twenty people or ask twenty questions, please don’t limit yourself to the historical or architectural aspects, but associate from that point with an open eye for social replacements of the original functions of a stepwell.
3 this group is the lucky one, they immediately start photographing, right from the moment they leave house. Take 20 photo’s at least in the stepwell, or even better take 20 x 20 🙂 discover the stepwell through your camera.
4 concentration is the keyword for this fourth group. They do ‘nothing’, prepare yourself for 20 minutes of slowly taking in the stepwell: see, touch, smell, ‘taste’, hear the stepwell and its immediate surrounding.
Step two (Saturday)
Gather per group and discuss in your group your experiences. Show each other what you did, and try to distill the meaning of what you’ve experienced.
Step three (Saturday/Sunday)
Return to the stepwell and make the photo’s that you think will relate your personal experience to the essential of the stepwell and your ideas about photography. This you can do individually or you might team up with one or more.
Step four (Monday)
Have the selected photo(‘s) printed in that way you can present the photowork as it should be communicative.
Step five (Monday evening)
We sit down in a room and discuss the works per group. The other three groups listen in. After the first group the next etc. Each group up till thirty minutes. We’ll round this off by discussing if and if yes, how, the different points of departure have influenced the final point of view.
After that we will show some of the work we’ve done on stepwells in Gujarat during two stays in Gujarat. Photo’s and some video. Up till one hour.
Jeroen van Westen, Curdin Tones and Parth Shah

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