#OpenCall
Open Call: Lens for Equality

German-Franco-Saudi Photography Workshop, 2nd-11th October 2022, Riyadh
 

Are you an artist interested in the medium of photography? Would you like to improve your photographic skills and understand better the relationship between the photographer and the photographed as well as reflect on gender bias in photography?
Goethe-Institut and Alliance Français in Saudi Arabia in cooperation with Gharem Studio offers the opportunity to work with internationally renowned photographers Scarlett Coten (France), Susanne Kriemann (Germany) and Tasneem Al Sultan (Saudi Arabia) in a 10 day on-site workshop in Riyadh. The workshop offers crucial exposure to the collaborative equal-sensitive practices and the possibility to review your work in the context of the ongoing social changes in Saudi Arabia.

Workshop Dates: October 2nd – October 11th
Time: 3-7 PM (???), Friday day off
Location: Studio Abdulnasser Gharem (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)

Who can participate: young and mid-career photographers and artists interested in the medium of photography as well as in the topic of gender equality

How to apply: interested candidates should submit a CV, minimum 6 photographs (each image should include a title and short description) and a short statement (120 words) what gender equality means to you, how you think it affects your work and what would you like to learn from the workshop.
We accept only candidates who commit to participation for the whole duration of the workshop.

Application deadline: Sunday, September 18th 2022
 

 

Notification of selected participants: Participants will be notified via email on Tuesday, September 25th, 2022.

At the end of the workshop, a public discussion, presentation and an exhibition will take place in Riyadh and possibly in Jeddah to give the participants the possibility of presenting the effects of their work publicly and receive immediate feedback. Showcasing the work in two different venues (one in Riyadh and another in Jeddah)

Get to know your mentors:
 

Tasneem Al Sultan (1985)

is an investigative photographer, storyteller and global traveller. Her work largely focuses on documenting social issues and rights-based topics in Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf region through a gender lens, challenging stereotypical perceptions of the Middle East and portraying a region and people that do not conform to expectations. Covering stories primarily for The New York Times and National Geographic, Tasneem documents ground-breaking developments in Saudi and the region, including most recently, the lifting of the driving ban for Saudi women. Selected as one of the 10 grantees of the Magnum Foundation/ Prince Clause/ AFAC grant in 2015, she began working on her project Saudi Tales of Love which was published in Time’s Lightbox, and later exhibited in Paris Photo, PhotoKathmandu, and among the slideshow at the prestigious Visa Pour L’Image, Perpignan in 2016. Tasneem was selected by British Journal Photography among the best 16 emerging photographers to watch in 2017. She soon joined Rawiya, the first all-female photography collective from the Middle East. In 2018 she joined the Canon Ambassador program as the program’s first Arab female photographer. In 2019, Tasneem was selected as a recipients of the Catchlight Fellowship to continue her work on Saudi women. She has also received honorable mention for the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism.

https://tasneemalsultan.com/
 

Susanne Kriemann (1972)

lives and works in Berlin. She is professor for Artistic Photography at the University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe and co-founder of the artist initiative AiR Berlin Alexanderplatz in Berlin. Kriemann investigates the medium of photography in the context of social history and archival practice. With an extended notion of the photographic document, she reflects on the world as an analogue “recording system” for human-caused processes. This has led to preoccupations with radioactivity and mining, archaeology and the notion of slow violence. A focus on ecology is prevalent in Kriemann’s subjects. Kriemann’s work was exhibited internationally, upon others at The Wattis San Francisco; Kunsthalle Wien; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Kunsthalle Winterthur, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg and Salonul de projecte Bucarest. She has participated in the 11th Shanghai Biennial, the 10th Gothenburg Biennial, the 5th Moscow Biennial and 5th Berlin Biennial. Further she participated in various artist residency programs, including 2019 NTU CCA Singapore and Goethe-Institut Colombo; she has co-published seventeen artist’s books since 1998.

http://www.susannekriemann.info/
 

Scarlett Coten

was born in Paris and is based in Arles. After studying at the National School of Photography in Arles, she works regularly for the national and international press and pursues personal projects mainly exploring the themes of identity, gender and intimacy, particularly through the photographic portrait. Coten is the winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Prize (2016), her work was recognized and included in public collections in France and abroad. as well as featured in many anthologies and exhibition catalogs like Female Photographers Now (Thames and Hudson 2017), Second Biennial of Contemporary Arab World Photographers (2017), Photographers Sketchbooks (Thames and Hudson 2014). The series Mectoub (2012/2016) and American Plan (2017/2019) is a study centered around the transformations of masculinity, particularly among young men, and the political act that induces desire for authenticity. An exploration envisaged by the photographer in a reversal of perspectives: the gaze of a woman on a generation which, from the Arab Spring to the America of Trump, frees itself from constraints and pressures, rethinks identity, multiple, moving, and regenerates the definition of masculinity. The mentioned project was awarded in the United States (Critical Mass, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Chelsea International Photography Competition, New York), finalist of numerous prizes and grants (Sony World Photography Awards, PHmuseum Photography Grant, Grand Prix Image Singulières de la documentary photography) and exhibited at the Institut du Monde Arabe (2017) as well as in Paris (2021) and in the USA (2022). Coten works now on a third part of the series: The disappearance of James Bond.

http://www.scarlettcoten.com/