Add to researchWhat the Dickens? A Photography Workshop in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan.  Azerbaijan.  Would you like to do a photography project about Dickens in Azerbaijan?  Sure would.  Me, my friends, everyone, just thought Azerbaijan sounded so exotic, adventurous and mysterious.  A place that you couldn’t immediately conjure up a picture in your mind of.  And Dickens.  Love Dickens.  Everyone loves Dickens….. but in Azerbaijan?  Will have to see about that.

I was to lead a photographic workshop of 16 photographers of different ages and abilities – so what to do?  I really wanted them to be inspired by Dickens’ words to see their city though the words and thoughts of Dickens.  ‘Sketches by Boz’, Dickens’ first attempt at a literary book was a gift.  Dickens’ London is a constantly changing, intriguing place that he loved and knew well.  By choosing quotes from these texts and having them translated into Azeri I hoped we would have the springboard for the participants to search out and record their own sketches of their own city.  You think?  More of that shortly.

I could recommend to you all not to get the night flight to Baku.  It doesn’t leave till 10pm, the flight is only 5 hours (with lots of PA) and you arrive at 7 in the morning.  You can work out your sleep quota.  I said “could” recommend you not get that flight but actually I would recommend it!  Lack of sleep made day one a most magical and surreal experience.  Europe’s longest boardwalk along the Caspian sea, the Old City, TV tower, giant flags, Debenhams….Loved it.

First day of the workshop we saw everyone’s work and each person was given a quote to get them started.  They we all excited and ready to be up early to capture their “Baku”.  Imagine my dismay to find they had all spent the day in the Old City photographing cats and walls! “NO, no, no!”  This is not what we are doing.  The participants had spent the day photographing what they thought, I, wanted to see.  Day two was not that much better but slowly we started seeming images that had actually be seeked out, found, understood.

Each person had found a way to explore their Dickens quote and had come back with truly original, personal work.

We could all see how each other had progressed, an incredible difference over the period of 5 days.  Dickens has never seemed more alive or relevant to me as when the participants read out their Dickens quotes in Azeri (or Russian) and then presented their body of work.

Please click here for wonderful images from Azerbaijan.

Sketches by Boz is a global British Council project taking place in China, Pakistan, UAE and Argentina, amongst others.