You are an artist (even if you don’t think you are)

Before I started teaching my workshops, I would have said no, probably not.

I honestly wondered whether amateur photographers could get any better.

I was carrying around this idea that the ability to ‘see’ interesting photos was a natural ability, a natural inclination almost, and if you didn’t have it, you couldn’t be taught it.

If you can’t ‘see’ good images, then you’ll never get anywhere.

I talked to my wife about it and she responded: “Can’t you just teach people how to see then? You taught me how to see.”

And that stopped me in my tracks.

You see, I had taught my wife to ‘see’. When we met she was the most intensely dreamy person who lived totally in her head.

But now, after spending time together, she’ll often point out interesting light to me! She notices her surroundings, colours and textures in a really compelling way.

She also edits my work, my books and projects, pulling selections together for press, for this blog and to send to our print buyers.

She has developed an amazing eye, by being inadvertently taught by me.

“You’re right”, I joked. “If you can do it, anyone can!”

After which she threw a pillow at my head.

I realised then that as a teacher my job was not only to show you how to see, but to demonstrate techniques so you can develop these skills of ‘seeing’ great photos – for yourself.

I don’t want to replicate my photo style in hundreds of people.

I want you to find out what is unique and special about you, your passions – to help you develop what is unique and special about your photography.

That is what is exciting to me, revealing the artist that is innately within you, that is within all of us.

And when it comes directly from you, the culmination of your experience, your life and passions, your unique way of seeing the world – that is artistry.

Which is why everything about my workshops is about showing you how you can be the very best photographer you can be.

Not by copying my style – but with us working together and finding the most effective way to express who you are.

Of course I have all the technical knowledge to pass on, to make it as easy as possible for you to feel confident and at ease with your camera.

Because I know you can be great. I know that everyone has inside of them the potential to be an artist, to tell stories, to be able to express themselves confidently with their camera.

And I know a lot of people have doubts about themselves. You might think you have reached the limit of your skill.

You wonder – are you even any good?

But what has drawn you to photography is the fact that you are a visual person.

That you are not prepared to let life drift past, you want to stop it, examine it, see it, capture it.

To find interesting ways to show the world what is fascinating.

We have been in Morocco for over a month now. I have been having an incredible time, I am honored to be staying in this beautiful town and sharing the daily life of the community.

Getting to know the local shopkeepers, going out each morning to buy Moroccan pancakes and churros from a couple who make them in their tiny home shop.

Seeing the wonder and awe in my city-raised-kids’ faces when we encounter goats eating fig leaves on the streets, or wandering sheep on our walks in the hills surrounding the town.

Seeing how the local women help my wife when she’s buying food at the market, the kids on our street who have embraced my kids and the men that I talk to in bad Spanish as I wander around looking at the beautiful light falling on flower pots, clotheslines or on the wonderfully textured buildings.

This is why I love to stay in places for weeks at a time. To feel a place, to know it. So that I can translate that into my photos.

Exploring the backstreets of Chefchaouen at night, where the old lamplights create beautiful shadows on the blue and greenwashed walls of the old buildings, smelling the scent of woodsmoke in the fresh mountain air.

Morocco has been a mesmerising adventure.

Happy photographing,

Anthony and Diana

This was me out at dawn a few days ago. That’s the little street we are staying on. It’s so pretty.