Mindful Documentary Photography and Filmmaking
Nance Ackerman

Nance Ackerman’s “Mindful Documentary Photography and Filmmaking” talk just might be a bit different than expected. On assignment, Ackerman often leaves her camera behind and concentrates on the ​art of seeing​, the experience of the moment and the beauty in the day to day. Ackerman will explore Mindful Photography techniques and experiences through her work on assignment all over the world – in war-torn Beirut, the Witch Camps in West Africa, Northern Afghanistan and even rural Nova Scotia. She chronicles her documentary work and her latest projects, like, Conviction, a collaboration with two other filmmakers and women inside prison.
Her casual storytelling approach makes for an educational, entertaining and enlightening look at our obsession with documentation, the loss of ‘experiential’ moments and need for mindfulness.

“In photography, mindfulness is looking at something, and truly seeing, feeling and experiencing it. Even though it may be something you have looked at a thousand times before.”

BIOGRAPHY:
NANCE ACKERMAN
Photographer, filmmaker and artivist

Celebrated documentary photographer and filmmaker, Nance Ackerman has been making images and film around the world for over 30 years. Her documentary photos have been featured in Time, Newsweek, Canadian Geographic, New York Times, and the Globe and Mail. Her work has been described as ‘artivism’ – creating art to create change. Her work has been exhibited at the Aperture Foundation in New York and the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC. And her book, ​Womankind: Faces of Change Around the World​ –​ a collection of portraits and essays of women activists around the world – was released in 2003.
In 2005 Ackerman turned her eye to directing social documentary films. From ​Cottonland​, which explored the connection between opioid addiction and post industrial malaise, to Conviction​,​ where she went inside Canada’s women’s prisons to imagine alternatives to incarceration through art and music – her work is both mindful and transformative. Her latest film​ ​Behind the Bhangra Boys​ takes an intimate look at joyous activism. Ackerman is now developing several projects from Afghanistan to Mexico that explore the power of the human spirit behind many seemingly overwhelming global issues. She has a masters degree in New Media and also taught photojournalism for seven years at the University of Kings College, in Halifax. She now offers​ ​International photography workshops​ around the world and is always looking for students who love an adventure!

The members only page has a direct link to Nance’s presentation.

Unfortunately, Curtis Jones’s talk on Newfoundland has had to be postponed until a future date. Due to unexpected change in his schedule in Nunavut in very remote northern communities, Curtis Jones will be off the grid for all of next week documenting traditional hunting practices on northern Baffin Island. We will let you know the rescheduled date as soon as possible.

In his place, Wayne Simpson will be presenting a talk on Portraits of Resilience.
A few words about Wayne’s presentation:

Many people wear a lifetime of experiences on their face, yet who that person is and what they have experienced often remains a mystery. In this talk, the audience will encounter a collection of portraits accompanied by individual stories of inspiration, tragedy and humanitarianism. The overall narrative is an emotional journey in which the audience will inevitably see pieces of themselves in the stories of some truly remarkable individuals.

With compassion and respect, Wayne Simpson has befriended individuals and discovered some truly remarkable people with profound stories we can all learn from. Intertwined with each story is the sub-narrative of the photographer learning who he is as each connection is forged.

Always compelling, and at times haunting, Simpson’s portraits keep storytelling at the forefront. The atmosphere and mood are often crafted with multiple studio lights on location. Many of Simpson’s portraits are graced with intricate details – adding additional layers of complexity to the portrait and in turn making each portrait a visual story on its own.

The members only page has a direct link to Wayne’s presentation.