This workshop is aimed at anyone with a basic knowledge of Photoshop who wishes to deepen their photographic eye through a unique approach to both lighting the model and post-production. The course begins on Friday evening and continues until Sunday. In addition, the photographer will provide post-workshop feedback on around ten photographs that you submit for his expert opinion. Price for workshop: 7,000 NOK.
Food, drinks, and any travel or accommodation costs are not included.
Limited spots available.
If you’d like to participate or express your interest, please send us an email to secure your place.
Lighting
During this first session, everyone will present a selection of their photographs; William will do the same. This sharing serves as a starting point for a reflection on his theory of paradoxical light, which he will illustrate using a series of paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries.
We will then see how certain contemporary photographers extend this way of thinking about light and appropriating it—it will then no longer be imposed or descriptive, but will become reflective and therefore intentional; it will reinvent itself to better reveal. It then becomes a way of thinking. It orders the world, distributes attention, and hierarchizes meaning through its clarity. It directs the eye not toward what shines but becomes “revealing” in order to give a coherent interpretation of your photographic world.
The portrait:
William long ago removed the word photogenic from his vocabulary. He often say that he don't photograph people, but rather thoughts, dreams, and states of mind. Freed from the weight of reality and questions of appearance, the model reveals their inner self. What emerges is no longer a social portrait, but an intimate one, where the soul appears, generating its own light, or where emotion brings it to the surface of the eyes.
(Far from those intended for social media, which he like to call “portraits with built-in obsolescence.”)
Post-production
The weekend alternates between shooting, discussions, and post-production, following a method he have developed over 35 years of experience in the lab and in photography.
For him, Photoshop is just a modern enlarger: He approach it as such, with a spirit of clarity and economy. No mountains of layers and daunting stacks. He flatten them as he go, saving each step to simplify the work and focus attention on the image itself.
Light does not merely illuminate: it focuses attention on the image itself; it selects, prioritizes, and brings out a story where anonymity once reigned. (Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, 2017)
William Ropp
Since the 1980s, William Ropp has been developing a unique photographic oeuvre in which strangeness mingles with tenderness. His portraits—often bathed in an uncertain light, on the border between dream and mystery—reveal the invisible side of those he photographs. Exhibited around the world
His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions internationally—notably at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), the Musée de la Photographie de Charleroi, the Centro Andaluz de la Fotografía (Spain), and the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles. His works are included in major public and private collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Musée de l'Elysée (Lausanne), the Vamn Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn (Holland), the Museo de Arte Moderno de Vitoria Artium (Spain), and the New York Public Library.
William Ropp is the author of 11 reference photography books published by Kehrer Verlag, Éditions de l'Œil, Vevais Gallery, etc., including Children (2004), William Ropp 2000, and William Ropp 2000.
William Ropp is the author of 11 reference photography books published by Kehrer Verlag, Éditions de l'Œil, Vevais Gallery, etc., including Children (2004), William Ropp 20 Years of Photography (Vevais Edition 2001), Mémoire rêvées d'Afrique (2009), Faces (2012), Regards from Lucy (2022), Claire Obscure (2024), etc. His work, at the crossroads of portraiture, theater, and dreams, now occupies a major place in contemporary photography.
Major exhibitions (excerpt)
Galerie Phase (Tongeren Belgium) May 2025
Musée des Beaux Art Nancy Oct 2024
Galerie Louise Durbuy Belgique August 2024
Gallery VU Paris Nov 2023
Original Song Gallery Shanghai August Sept 2023
Musée d'Art Comtemporain et ancien Epinal Mai 2022
Gallery STP Mars 2022 Greifswald (Germany)
Musée de St Dié des Vosges Rétrospective Decembre/Janvier 2022
The Photogallery Halmstad Sweden Mars 2019
Chabeuil rencontres de la photographie (guest of honor Sept 2018)
Throckmorton Gallery New York June 2018
Almof Gallery (Sweden May June 2017)
Centro Andaluz de la Fotografia Spain Dec 2016
Iris Gallery Foto focus Festival Cicinnati USA Dec 2016
In Focus Gallery Köln Sept/Oct 2015
French Cultural Ambassy Cambodia Sept 2015
Artco Gallery Mars 2015
Photo Event June 2014 Mechelen Belgium
Festival Nicephore (guest of honor) Clermont Ferrand (France)
Frog Gallery Houston TX October 2014
AIPAD New York with Throckmorton Gallery Mars 2014
Bielsko Biala Foto Festival Oct 2013 April 2014
Gallery Robert Doisneau Nancy France April 2013
Gallery Baudelaire Anvers Nov 2012
Bratislava Month of Photography Nov 2012
Gallery Krisal Genève Oct 2012
Gallery Jiro Muira Tokyo August 2012
In Focus Gallery Cologne Germany May 2012
Maison Europeene pour la Photographie Paris France January 2012
Stenersen Museum Sept 2011 Oslo Norway
Musée de la Photographie Charleroi Belgium Nov 2010
Original Song Gallery Shanghai Sept 2010
Pingayo Foto Festival (Chine Sept 2010)
Festival international de Photographie Arles (France 2010)
…and many more
His work is represented by the following galleries:
Throckmorton Gallery New York
The Photogallery (Sweden)
Original Song Gallery (Shanghai)
Holden Luntz Gallery (Florida)
Gallery STP (Germany Greifswald)
Jiro Miura Gallery (Japan)
Galerie Louise Durbuy (Belgique)