27 July 2012

25 July 2012

New Tear Sheets




Spreads from The 2012 Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism catalog. Hannover, 2012.

L'Espresso, Italy. 27 May 2010.

20 July 2012

Updates to website


I am updating my website so please check back for more new work over the next few days.

This summer I am in Romania and the Eastern European region and am available for assignment. You can stay up to date with my work and travels by subscribing to my new quarterly newsletter here.

    

17 July 2012

Romanian Rural Life Workshop: Maramures - Reportage at its Limits





























Reportage at its Limits: Maramures - Folk Traditions on Europe's Eastern Fringe

Join Davin Ellicson in the Maramures region of northern Romania in August 2012 for a week of enchantment in one of the most traditional villages left in Europe.

For decades Romania’s closed border policy under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu as well as a natural fortress of mountains kept Maramures isolated from the rest of Europe. Even after the fall of Communism change was slow to enter the region. The area is renowned for the strength of its traditions, folk costumes, idyllic landscape and is considered the heart of Romanian culture. In 2007 Romania joined the European Union and Maramures is at last changing. Come savor this rural life before it vanishes forever!

I am offering a seven day documentary photography workshop based in the village of Valeni where Davin lived for a year with a family and fell under Romania's dark spell. Maramures is where he found his photographic voice. In Davin's third workshop in the village, he will be sharing his passion for Romania with students.

Davin will be working closely with workshop participants and providing daily critiques and group discussions. He will begin with a review of participants' past work. The goal of this workshop is to learn to create strong personal photographs about summer peasant life. We will shoot during the day and edit in the evenings. It’s a workshop open to amateurs and professionals alike. Technical, theoretical and aesthetic issues will be discussed as attendees work towards honing their individual visions. 


Everyone will enjoy great access. Homestays will allow for an immersive experience with local villagers and the opportunity to sample distinctive traditional Romanian food and 110 proof homemade plum brandy. It will be an opportunity to witness the last peasants in Europe living life as they have for millennia albeit with a few aspects of modern life mixed in! The week promises to be an intense, intimate and unforgettable experience where students will get to know the villagers first hand and live a romantic way of life forgotten in the rest of Europe more than a century ago. 


It is an all digital workshop limited to 8 students and everyone should come with their own laptop and editing software. Knowledge of your digital SLR or rangefinder and workflow is essential.

DATES: 11-18 August

WORKSHOP LOCATION: Valeni, Maramures, Romania.

WORKSHOP FEE: €675. Homestays and meals are included. Students are responsible for their own transportation to Romania and up to Maramures. A few budget airlines now fly from western Europe to both Bucharest and Budapest from where there are daily trains to the cities of Baia Mare and Sighetu Maramatiei in Maramures. 

REGISTRATION: The workshop is open to any professional or committed amateur who has knowledge of digital cameras and editing software.

CONTACT: For detailed travel and arrival information email Davin at: davin@davinellicson.com  

See more of Davin's Maramures photographs here.

Sami Reindeer Herders
























Anders Omma, a Sami Reindeer Herder, castrates a buck at the autumn herd separations in Parka, Sweden above the Arctic Circle. I'm hoping to get back up to Scandinavia to continue this project.

Josef Koudelka Gallery Talk



















Here is an amazing and rare gallery talk by Josef Koudelka at his 'Gypsies' opening in Milan where he speaks about the new Steidl version of the classic work, how he laid out the exhibition and what the project meant for him. Click the image above.

16 July 2012

2012 Lumix Festival



Views of the installation of my Maramures project.


Polish photographer Tomasz Lazar.


Magnum photographer Peter van Agtmael speaks about his long-term work about American soldiers.
























I attended The Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism in Hannover, Germany last month where a part of my Maramures project was exhibited. It was good fun meeting up with many great photographers including Ernesto Bazan above.

15 July 2012

New October Saxon Villages Workshop







The Saxon Villages of Transylvania

Join Davin Ellicson in the Saxon Villages of Transylvania in autumn 2012 for a week-long documentary photography workshop in an enchanting area of Europe.

Central Transylvania was home to scores of ethnic German villages from the 12th century onwards when King Géza II of Hungary invited Germans to colonize the area, but dictator Nicolae Ceausescu sold back around 90,000 Saxons to West Germany in the 1980s in an effort to rid Romania of the minority as well as to help pay off the country's foreign debt. The remaining Saxon population made a mass migration to Germany in 1990. Today some are returning and the area is coming alive once again.

Davin is offering a week-long documentary photography workshop based in the village of Malancrav. From here, we will explore this lost world and tour the villages of Viscri, Crit, Mesendorf and Biertan among others by mini van.

Davin will be working closely with participants and providing daily critiques and group discussions. We will begin with a review of students' past work. Participants are encouraged to photograph what interests them on their own, in pairs or small groups. The goal of this workshop is to learn to create strong personal photographs about some of the most unspoiled rural life left in Europe. We will shoot during the day and edit in the evenings. It’s a workshop open to amateurs and professionals alike. Technical, theoretical and aesthetic issues will be discussed as attendees work towards honing their individual visions.

Everyone will enjoy great access to the villages through local guides from The Mihai Eminescu Trust and accommodation at restored Saxon homes will allow for an immersive experience with local villagers. The seven days promise to be an intense, intimate and unforgettable experience.

Since the fall of Communism, The Mihai Eminescu Trust, an NGO that Prince Charles collaborates with, has played an instrumental role in calling attention to Romania’s endangered rural culture and the plight of the Saxon Villages and is working to restore precious architecture and to revive the communities and make them sustainable again.

The Trust has renovated the houses and churches using traditional building materials and techniques and is helping return the idyllic villages to active farming through training the mostly Romanians and gypsies who now live there. Guest houses have opened encouraging the growth of a sustainable local economy and the youth are deciding to stay.

It is an all digital workshop limited to 8 students and everyone should come with their own laptop and editing software. Knowledge of your digital SLR or rangefinder and workflow is essential.

DATES: 20-27 October.

WORKSHOP LOCATION: Malancrav, Transylvania and surrounding villages.

WORKSHOP FEE: €695. Includes a room at a restored Saxon home with three meals each day, all transportation around the villages and the assistance of local guides. Students are responsible for getting to Sighisoara, Romania on their own from where we will head out to the villages.

REGISTRATION: The workshop is open to any professional or committed amateur who has knowledge of digital cameras and editing software.

WORKSHOPS SITE: Click here for more information on my workshops.

CONTACT: Please contact me with any questions.
davin@davinellicson.com

05 July 2012

New September Danube Delta Workshop



Join photographer Davin Ellicson on the Danube Delta of Romania in September 2012 for a week exploring and photographing this fascinating part of Europe, cut off from the rest of Romania.

A paradise for wildlife and now both a Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Delta was once slated to be drained by dictator Nicolae Ceausescu who intended to use its water for agriculture. Today, most visitors and photographers come for the wildlife, but our focus will be on the rich daily life of the local inhabitants--fishermen, ethnic Ukrainian Lipovani and people living in the port towns of Sulina and Sfantu Gheorghe.

Davin is offering a seven day documentary photography workshop based in the village of Periprava. From here, we will take daily boat rides along the myriad channels, exploring different communities including Mila 23 and Murighiol.

Davin will be working closely with workshop participants and providing daily critiques and group discussions. We will begin with a review of participants' past work. The goal of this workshop is to learn to create strong personal photographs about life on the Danube Delta. We will shoot during the day and edit in the evenings. It’s a workshop open to amateurs and professionals alike. Technical, theoretical and aesthetic issues will be discussed as attendees work towards honing their individual visions.   

Everyone will stay at the Ultima Frontiera Complex, a boutique hotel far out on the Delta and home to Lipovani fishermen. The compound offers great local food and is an excellent base for our explorations. Local guides will help facilitate an immersive experience with the communities we visit.

It will be an opportunity to witness a remote area of Europe where people live in synch with the seasons and depend on the water of the Delta for their livelihood. The week promises to be an intense, intimate and unforgettable experience where students will get to know the villagers of the Delta first hand and experience a spectacular way of life. It is an all digital workshop limited to 8 students and everyone should come with their own laptop and editing software. Knowledge of your digital SLR or rangefinder and workflow is essential.

DATES: 8-15 September.

WORKSHOP LOCATION: Periprava, Romania.

WORKSHOP FEE: 995. Accommodation, meals, round trip transport from Bucharest to Tulcea, Romania and on to Periprava as well as all transport within the Delta are included. A few budget airlines now fly from western Europe to Bucharest including Wizz Air and BlueAir.

REGISTRATION: Booking deadline is two weeks before the start of the workshop. The workshop is open to any professional or committed amateur who has knowledge of digital cameras and editing software. 

CONTACT: For detailed travel and arrival information email Davin at: davin@davinellicson.com