The end is just the beginning..

Our first Hinterlands workshop down in Devon is all done now. A massive thanks to everyone who came on the workshop, taught on the workshop, cooked, swept, came to listen, told their story and took part in any way.

It's all go here on my laptop as the next Hinterlands is coming up at the end of June and we have some talks to organise too. It's fair to say that I'm tired!

I just wanted to share some of the images from the workshop just passed. It was a really fun event and there are some great memories captured here. All ninety two images are over at our thehinterlands.co.uk page or if you like thumbnails check this out...

The Hinterlands - Day 5..

I have been having a wonderful time this week with 17, and occasionally 18 others down here on the edge of the Blackdown Hills in Devon at the second ever Hinterlands workshop. We are humbled to have participants that have travelled thousands of miles to get here to this little corner of rural Devon to make up our small community for a week and learn together in this really special way.

It's been a week of sunshine and in between training with duckrabbit our new found friends here at the Hinterlands have eaten wonderfully prepared fresh food out in the open to relive the everyday stresses of life. Tuesday saw teams head out across the county to visit all it has to offer and collect peoples valuable stories to treasure and turn into wonderful photofilms. From trams, to calves and horse drawn canal barges there was something for everyone and perhaps an eye opener into what this beautiful patch of green has to offer.

In the past few days we have has the pleasure of hosting a talk with Guardian multimedia editor Pascal Wyse who wowed us with his beautiful soundscapes from nature before getting almost three hours sleep in his cosy bell tent to get up and capture the dawn chorus. On top of that we were happy to welcome back past Hinterlands student Alice Carfrae - alicecarfrae.com - to talk about her current work Tin Girls and her experimentation with multimedia. John MacPherson - john-macpherson-photography.com - finished wrapped our evening last night with tales of people, places and generally enthused us to become more excited about just taking pictures and enjoying it for what it is.

It's the last full day today and after cooking a whole host of fry-ups this morning I am looking forward to our finale this evening. We invite the local community, those that have helped and participated in our photofilms to come along and view the work made here at The Hinterlands. It's a really special part of what we do here and it's my favourite. It makes you really consider what you put into your work and to make it as honest and as true as possible, and there really is nothing like seeing that look of genuine happiness on the face of someone whose story you have told when they watch a film about themselves.

24 hours left here at the yurts and I'm sure it will be great!

A year already..back down in Devon for The Hinterlands

It's hard to believe it's been a year already since we were down in Devon putting on the first Hinterlands workshop. It won't be easy to forget the characters who made last years workshop so much fun and a real experience for everyone but I'm sure this years bunch will build on what we had and I hope it will be a great week.

Well I'm back down here in the Blackdown hills now with Rebecca and people will be arriving from all over the world (no really!) at lunchtime tomorrow.  We have been working hard making bits of kitchen, hanging signs, wiring things up, cleaning things down, having bonfires and generally getting hold of the best local booze we can find. Now I'm totally shattered and about to hit the hay.

Here's to The Hinterlands....year 2...part 1

The Forgotten 1%

The forgotton 1% from over at photographer Will Steacy's blog. Too true!

http://willsteacy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/forgotten-1.html

Brenda Ann Kenneally!

Nuff said? (is this still acceptable outside of the 90's..)

Brenda's a fantastic photographer and she's making the trip from bustling Brooklyn, NYC to bumbling Blackborough in the beautiful Devon hills to mentor 10 participants in this close and intimate residential workshop. There is loads more information about the workshop at www.thehinterlands.co.uk or feel free to email me with any questions at mike[at]thehinterlands[dot]co[dot]uk.

The lovely Gill Chattey designed this flyer for us and we hope you can find a place to make it shine. Maybe print it out and stick it on your fridge, your window or at your place of work or you could email it facebook it post it on twitter - or just generally "social media it".

New updated Hinterlands for 2012!

I've spent the morning outside of my flat, outside of the office and outside of the screen on my computer. With the beautiful spring weather we've been having it's been really hard to have been sat inside tapping away working on the new Hinterlands website although now it's done I think it was well worth the effort.

Take a look at www.thehinterlands.co.uk and let us know what you think...

Last years Hinterlands workshop celebrated the great outdoors, photography, photofilms, tasty food, a sense of community, yurts, having a drink around the fire and storytelling in equal measures and was a big success. Fifteen happy people walked away from their time in Devon with the skills to make a photofilm after a week of learning in the big barn with duckrabbit.

This year we are adding another workshop to the roster so we thought it was time for an upgrade to our presence on the web. duckrabbit are back for 2012 and will be playing host to 15 trainees at The Hinterlands. Be prepared to be immersed in a world of photofilms and storytelling and ready to increase your potential to use multimedia as part of your work.

'Dana`s sister, Jessica, on her 22d birthday. A friend gave her pellet guns.' - Part of the series Upstate Girls - © Brenda Ann Kenneally.

On top of this we have, all the way from New York city the wonderful Brenda Ann Kenneally. Brenda is a skilled storyteller and has many comprehensive bodies of work under her belt. Ten lucky participants will be taken under her wing for a week to thoroughly look at their working practice and to build upon their skills using a multi-layered approach to documentary storytelling. Brenda also

We are so pleased to be working with such talented people like Brenda and duckrabbit and will also be getting in some great speakers to keep the trainees evenings jam packed with interesting talks and screenings. On top of all of that we are chuffed to be welcoming back the wonderful Olivia in the kitchen who will again be cooking up a storm of wonderful food to feed those creative appetites.

The best thing about The Hinterlands this year is the fact that it is still a small workshop that holds true to it's values. We source local food and drink and all of the trainees will work on stories in the local environment, stories that we hope the subjects will come and view later for themselves over a beer. The participants share yurts with solar lights, compost loos and warming wood burning stoves and get to know each other enhancing their learning experience. Our workshops aren't up on a pedestal and all of the people involved are normal people who enjoy sharing their knowledge and skills. If you come down to The Hinterlands this year you will eat, drink and relax with the trainers, our cook, Rebecca and myself (that would be us the organisers..) and generally be part of the whole experience. This is really important to us, it's how a workshop should be and it's how The Hinterlands is and we are so happy to be running it.

Jonathan Worth from the online photography class #phonar, a speaker at the 2011 Hinterlands workshop.

Obviously I am slightly biased as I am part of the workshop but I really do believe it's a great experience and that we offer something truly individual. So biased or not - get on the website and have a read about what we do, look at some of the testimonials or watch our photofilm featuring last years trainees. I think you'll like it and I hope you will want to come down and become part of it this summer.

Oh and I had an idea. I need to clear it with Olivia but I was thinking of making fresh sourdough loaves every morning. There really is nothing better than a hunk of fresh sourdough, a bit of butter and a spoon of marmalade coupled with a fresh cup of coffee to start a creative day in the countryside....sounds good to me!

Right well I think I'm going to have another cup of tea and then wonder what to do with all of the veg that I foraged this morning. I have wild garlic which will definetly end up as a wild garlic pesto, nettles which I am slightly less well versed in and primroses which are great in salads all to look forward to....yum!

flickr is rubbish and this is not..

A good friend and follower of the westcountrysnapper just informed me that flickr is rubbish and has been hiding Thomas Denny and Heather Fell's portraits from my site. I was never a massive fan of flick and I don't really know why thos portraits ended up there but they are back up on the site.

So there uyou have it flickr is rubbish and these are not.. aurora borealis in Norway by my good friend and helicopter aficionado Jonno. He's been hassling me about getting a zoom lens as these all on wide primes so maybe next year we will see a bit more aurora and a little less of everything else.