The Journey

Headquarters/Location:
The Photo Alliance
7800 Oak St
New Orleans, LA 70118

Dates:
Sept 28-Oct 1, 2021

Cost:
Tuition: $1750

Limited Enrollment:
15 available spaces
8 spaces remaining

Project New Orleans

Nonprofit Storytelling

This workshop is our longest-running and most popular program because New Orleans is a city unlike any other. This year has changed the city in ways not seen since Hurricane Katrina. The effects of COVID-19 have taken away many nonprofit safety nets and left their clients in serious need. As we work side-by-side to help the local nonprofits in their recovery, this workshop will be more powerful and more necessary than any we have ever seen before. Trust us when we say: your photography will never be more needed.

Momenta is deeply rooted in New Orleans.

For every year since our founding, Momenta has been working with the incredibly dedicated nonprofit teams in the Crescent City. The nonprofits benefit from your brilliant photos by using them to tell their story to the world and you will learn real-world skills to documenting humanitarian issues.

You can be a force of change.

On this inspirational workshop, you will be paired with a local nonprofit to create a powerful photo essay about their staff and all their efforts to fulfill their mission. You’ll also have a full day of educational lectures, hands-on instruction to help improve your technical skills, as well as daily one-on-one editing sessions. We will end our week together with a huge public slideshow party celebrating the amazing nonprofits from your projects!

Scroll down this page to learn about your instructors, the details, and the program description.

Your photography skills can change lives.

This workshop will inspire, challenge, and invigorate you like no other.

Work directly with local nonprofit staff and clients
1-on-1, personalized editing for each student, every day for an hour or more
Lectures on portfolio building, business skills, workflow, marketing, & much more

COVID-19 NOTICE: The safety of our students and staff on the ground is paramount to us and we take it very seriously. With the situation changing so quickly, we want to ensure, when we all gather in person to support the nonprofits who desperately need us, it is the best environment for your learning and creativity as well as safety. As we prepare for all our workshops in 2021-2022, we will continue to follow city, state, and federal guidelines for safety protocols and working with our advisors to ensure every precaution possible is made. In addition to the usual safety preparations and PPE we use on our programs, we will also be implementing stringent personal and group hygiene protocols during all workshops. Since our programs are limited to small groups and are first come-first serve, we recommend putting your deposit in for the workshop program to hold your place. If you decide you’d like to transfer to another workshop in the future, we are waiving all transfer fees through January 2022 to allow you to feel most comfortable with your decision to travel with us.

Be a Force of Change!

The Destination

At Momenta, we believe in the power of photography as a force of change and we know the residents of NOLA value that supportive change. After facing down hurricanes, the Gulf Oil Spill, and historically fast gentrification in the past decade, the people and nonprofits on the city still work tirelessly to make their city as prosperous as ever.

Our workshops have increased health, PPE, and safety protocols so you can feel fully comfortable during our small group interactions. In terms of our health and safety protocols, we take great care and caution with our #MomentaFamily and next year will be no exception. As the world begins to reopen, Momenta remains committed to supporting you as you document the nonprofits who are working day and night to recover from the latest series of global crises.

Join Momenta on this unique workshop to participate with the devoted volunteers of the Crescent City. Volunteer your time and skills to document their tremendous hard work and resilience. You will be a part of the effort to help each and every nonprofit on their path to a successful future. You, in turn, will walk away with a successful photo package to use in your portfolio to market yourself to other nonprofits clients and collaborators.

If you’ve never been on a workshop with us before, we recommend you visit the blog series, 5 Questions With…, to read interviews with our alumni here. You will come to learn about the #MomentaFamily and the amazing experiences of those who came before you.

We will focus our work with local NGOs and nonprofits of varying specialization and scale. From musical preservation organizations to community outreach to animal rescue, workshop attendees will be given the task of creating compelling visual or multimedia narrative packages in collaboration with their assigned nonprofit. This is truly a once in a lifetime experience!

What To Expect

An unparalleled chance to use your photography skills to help local nonprofits thrive
Your own nonprofit partner to work with, based on your answers to a detailed pre-workshop student questionnaire
Momenta’s management of pre-workshop logistics to find your nonprofit assignments
You keep the copyright to all your photographs; each attendee donates a license to a collection of images to your local nonprofit partner so they can use them to promote the great work they are doing
Supportive direction and intensive instruction on photo workflow and file management
Option to participate in nighttime group discussions throughout the week such as the ethics and equity of community and documentary coverage, business skills for photographers and much more.
One hour per day of 1-on-1, private editing sessions with an instructor to help build your style and skills
Orientation lectures guide you on narrative storytelling, elements of a photo story, the importance of documentary photography, & much more

Join Us in The Big Easy!

Register Here

Meet Your NOLA Faculty

Jamie Rose

Jamie is co-Founder and COO of Momenta Group, LLC, which owns Momenta Workshops, Momenta Creative, and manages Wildfire Media, a nonprofit dedicated to documentary storytelling. Her early career was spent in the halls of power as a Press Corps photojournalist covering Capitol Hill and the White House, primarily as a long term contract for The New York Times.

Her passion for working with nonprofits led her to documentary coverage of humanitarian and health crisis in Africa, North and South America, and the Middle East…

Learn More about Jamie Rose

…Her clients included organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, The Calvert Foundation, The Global Fund, and Physicians for Human Rights among others.

In 2011, Jamie was awarded the United Nations’ Photographers Leadership Award. Her long term photo projects have won acclaim from the Alexia Foundation and The White House News Photographers’ Association for her portfolio of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) health care workers in wartime Northern Uganda.

Jamie is considered an expert in nonprofit communications and has been interviewed about the importance of storytelling in nonprofit communications by The Candid Frame, Photo District News (PDN), Around the Lens, Photography Talk, Creative Marketing & Business Podcast, and News Photographer Magazine among others. She has been an invited lecturer on communications for nonprofits at The Foundation Center, Colombia University, Georgetown University, University of Oregon, the Northern Short Course, as well as her alma maters.

Jamie holds degrees in Literature and Communications from American University and Visual Interactive Communications from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. She also runs the popular blog, Jamie’s List which promotes jobs and opportunities for creatives. She lives in the mountains of Oregon with her husband, co-founder of Momenta John Chris Anderson, and their rescue dog, Cody. Please don’t look up her website because it’s woefully out of date and will be redesigned hopefully someday before the next decade. Better yet, visit https://www.MomentaWorkshops.com or https://www.Wildfire-Media.org.

Annie Flanagan

Annie Flanagan is one of the most popular mentors at Momenta because of their candor, great attitude, and brilliant editing.

Annie is a photographer, filmmaker and educator whose work primarily focuses on trauma, gender and sexuality in the United States. Annie holds a M.S. from Syracuse University’s…

Learn More about Annie Flanagan

… S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. Their work has been recognized by organizations including Alexia Foundation, iPOY, Burn Magazine and New Orleans Photo Alliance. Their select clients include The New York Times, ESPN, ProPublica and Mother Jones.

Annie grew up in Washington, D.C. and currently lives in New Orleans. See Annie’s work at annieflanagan.com.

Marianne Hawkins Sabrier

Marianne is a born and bred New Orleans native, enjoying photography as a second career. With her husband Steve, she runs an amazingly successful wedding and portrait business, The Red M Studio. Marianne and Steve have been delighting their clients with their clean, bold, authentic photographic style since 2011.

Marianne is a passionate storyteller with a keen eye for capturing moments that matter and that passion for moments has made her one of our favorite workshop coaches. She is a keen expert at business development (she has an MBA!) and used that knowledge to grow The Red M Studio into a premiere wedding and lifestyle exclusive studio in the Big Easy. The studio has earned accolades such as the Best of the Knot Hall of Fame and WeddingWire Couple’s Choice award winners every year for five years in a row.

While studying and researching to develop her documentary style, Marianne attended our Project New Orleans program and fell in love with the #MomentaFamily and nonprofit photography. As part of their studio’s outreach, The Red M annually donates a percentage of their family-sessions to eliminating food instability and hunger in Lousiana. To date, the program has raised more than $15,500 for local schools and non-profits in the Greater New Orleans area. Steve and Marianne also work on an annual food drive fundraiser that feeds over 1,500 people each year. As they like to say, “we feed people with our cameras”.

Year after year, Marianne has received loving reviews as a professional mentor from our students and we are delighted to have another alum on our Momenta faculty. Visit Marianne’s gorgeous work at https://www.theredmstudio.com or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/theredmstudio/.

Are You Looking for the Fine Print?

Click through the tabs below for more info.

FAQs

1. Do you recommend hotels or have a group rate somewhere?
Our workshop headquarters is at 7800 Oak St., New Orleans, LA 70118. We offer suggestions on local inns, hotels, and hostels. However, we allow each person to find their own accommodations based on their budget. We send registered attendees a list so you can see some of the local options.

2. When should I arrive/depart? What’s the general schedule?
The workshop begins at 10 am CST on Tuesday and concludes at 9 p.m. on Friday night after the final slideshow party. A number of attendees choose to arrive a day early to get their bearings and possibly try to meet with their nonprofits. The French Quarter Festival is that weekend as well so many people will be staying through Sunday or Monday to enjoy the festivities.

3. How do you pick a nonprofit for me? What if I want a very specific nonprofit?
Each attendee fills out a questionnaire to help our staff learn their interests, experience, and goals. The questionnaire is a very important part of our process at Momenta. Your answers will allow us to get to know you and your goals as well as help find the good match with a nonprofit to help you build your skills.

If you want to find your own nonprofit:
We applaud any photographer who wants to try this process out on their own! We love when photographers choose this option because it helps you find the perfect NPO for you. Plus, you learn even more about working with nonprofits as a client when you are able to research and work with them on being your workshop assignment. We still ask you to fill out the questionnaire anyway and indicate this choice on your form.

If you want to search for your own nonprofit, we are happy to work with you to help you find a nonprofit that suits your goals. This is the best way to ensure you are 100% satisfied with your nonprofit assignment for the week and get a little extra learning out of the process.

We have a template email we give you to send to the nonprofits you are interested in joining for the workshop and we also do a phone meeting to help you get started.

If you want Momenta to assign you to a nonprofit:
That’s cool too! We are totally willing to do this for you. You start by filling out the questionnaire we send you approximately 45 days prior to the workshop.

Once we get all the forms in from the attendees and the nonprofits, we will make the assignments and introductions approximately 1-2 weeks prior to the workshop.

4. Who keeps the copyright to the images?
You do. You made them = you own the copyright. A Photo Release Agreement is sent to all parties to sign via DocuSign confirming you are the copyright holder of the images, you give Momenta and the nonprofit permission to use your images for outreach or educational purposes, etc. More details will come on the pre-workshop emails about this process.

5. Do I need a car?
We do recommend having a car if you feel comfortable driving but it is not required. If you won’t be driving yourself, we ask you to let us know on the questionnaire because we need to take that into consideration when we do the nonprofit assignments.

6. I’m worried about the COVID-19 coronavirus. Should I wait to register? What if I don’t feel comfortable traveling by then?

We totally understand! The safety of our students and staff on the ground is paramount to us and we take it very seriously. With the situation changing for many people on a monthly basis, we want to ensure when we all gather in person again, it is the best environment for learning and creativity as well as safety.

As we prepare for all our workshops in 2021-2022, we will continue to follow city, state, and federal guidelines for safety protocols and working with our advisors to ensure every precaution possible is made. In addition to the usual safety preparations and PPE we use on our programs, we will also be implementing stringent personal and group hygiene protocols during all workshops.

Since our programs are limited to small groups and are first come-first serve, we recommend putting your deposit in for the workshop program to hold your place. If you decide you’d like to transfer to another workshop in the future, we are waiving all transfer fees through January 2022 to allow you to feel most comfortable with your decision to travel with us.

What’s Included

Workshop Fees Include: daily one-on-one private editing sessions with our instructors and personalized portfolio reviews, workshop learning materials, slideshows and lectures, an opening night dinner, and final night celebration party.

Workshop Fees Do Not Include: international airfare, hotels (available for an additional fee), early arrival or late departure accommodations, visa fees (if applicable), medivac insurance (required), medical or vaccination costs, meals, items such as personal excursions, alcohol, phone calls, laundry, alcoholic beverages, etc.

It’s Easy to Sign Up!

Each workshop requires a minimum deposit to reserve your place in the workshop. To register and hold your place on the workshop, you must put down a $1000 deposit. After you have registered for a workshop, final payments will be due within 120 days of the start of the workshop. Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email from us via our secure registration company. Within 90 days of the start of the workshop, full payments are due.

As we near the start of the workshop, you will receive informational documents from our staff including a reading and research list, your final workshop itinerary, and travel guides. We work very hard to insure you are prepared in every way for this learning adventure. Our staff stands ready to answer any of your questions and to help facilitate the smoothest travel experience possible. Please reach out to us with any questions via our Contact page.

Equipment

We require all attending photographers to bring their own cameras, laptop and support gear like external hard drives. Our staff and instructors can offer gear recommendations and help you understand the nuances of your equipment. You will also be able check out a loaner camera and lenses during the workshop thanks to our official camera sponsor!

We ask all photographers bring at least a digital SLR or rangefinder camera with 1-2 lenses. We encourage you to bring a lightweight tripod. Should you choose to participate in a multimedia project, you must come with a working knowledge of the required software programs and your equipment.

Please see our Resources tab at the top of the website for our gear and traveling tips suggestions.

Notes

This course is designed for people who are good natured, flexible, have a working knowledge of photography and are interested in a unique documentary photography workshop experience. We will work with each photographer to improve their photography on any level, and we will find the right theme for your vision. We will provide support every step of the way, but you need to have a positive attitude and work well with a group!

This experience is more of a photo practicum than it is a tourism trip. The educational journey will be amazing and eye opening but it is not easy. You will work long hours. Your instructors will give you daily challenges and push you to new heights with your photography. We will encourage you to stretch and think creatively.

You may encounter people or organizations that are challenging to photograph. You may have to photograph in dark rooms or outside at high noon. You may have stressful days of difficult logistics. While we will be there to help you, support you and give you insight on the best way to handle the situation as a professional, you will need to take as much responsibility for your progress as we do.

Register with security and confidence.

Register Here

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The Journey

Headquarters/Location:
El Paso, Texas

Dates:
October 26-29, 2021

Cost:
Tuition: $1500

Limited Enrollment:
15 available spaces
10 spaces left

Register Here

Project El Paso 2021

Photographing Nonprofits

On August 3, 2019, a gunman entered a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas and killed 22 people while injuring 24 others. The events of that day will be burned in the minds of many Americans including those of us at Momenta as we watched the news in horror.

Now the city faces another terrible burden as the COVID-19 impact creates even more strain on the city’s resources. The nonprofit partners are working tirelessly to support their city and, in 2021, they will need us more than ever to help tell their story.

Momenta stands with the citizens of El Paso. Every year, we seek new domestic workshop locations with a thriving nonprofit spirit that needs our support. The decision to choose El Paso was easy. As a border town with incredible diversity, faith, and culture, the nonprofits of El Paso and citizens need their stories told. The documentary projects you create will show the world they are more than just one horrible act of hatred.

You can be a force of change. On this inspirational workshop, you will be paired with a local nonprofit to create a powerful photo essay about their staff and all their efforts to fulfill their mission. The nonprofits benefit from your brilliant photos by using them to tell their story to the world and you will learn real-world skills on documenting humanitarian issues.

You’ll also have a full day of educational lectures, hands-on instruction to help improve your technical skills, as well as daily one-on-one editing sessions. We end our week together with a huge public slideshow party on Friday night to celebrate you and the amazing nonprofits from your projects.

Scroll down this page to learn about your instructors, the FAQs, and trip details.

Your photography skills can change lives.

This workshop will inspire, challenge, and invigorate your photography like no other.

Work directly with local nonprofit staff and clients
1-on-1, personalized editing for each student, every day for an hour or more
Use exceptional gear provided by our Official Camera Sponsor Sony
Our slideshow party held for the public and media of El Paso will end the week together

COVID-19 NOTICE: The safety of our students and staff on the ground is paramount to us and we take it very seriously. With the situation changing so quickly, we want to ensure, when we all gather in person to support the nonprofits that desperately need us, it is the best environment for your learning and creativity as well as safety.

As we prepare for all our workshops in 2021-2022, we will continue to follow city, state, and federal guidelines for safety protocols and working with our advisors to ensure every precaution possible is made. In addition to the usual safety preparations and PPE we use on our programs, we will also be implementing stringent personal and group hygiene protocols during all workshops.

Since our programs are limited to small groups and are first come-first serve, we recommend putting your deposit in for the workshop program to hold your place. If you decide you’d like to transfer to another workshop in the future, we are waiving all transfer fees through January 2022 to allow you to feel most comfortable with your decision to travel with us.

Be a Force of Change!

The Program

At Momenta, we believe in the power of photography as a force of change and we know the residents of El Paso need to have their stories told. After facing border tensions, gentrification, immigration issues, and now COVID-19, the people and nonprofits on the city are still working tirelessly to make their growing city as prosperous as ever.

In 2021, our workshops will have increased health, PPE, and safety protocols so you can feel fully comfortable during our small group interactions. As the world begins to reopen, cities like El Paso will need our support more than ever. Momenta remains committed to creating a safe, supportive environment for you to explore your documentary storytelling.

Join Momenta on this unique workshop to document with the devoted volunteers of El Paso. Volunteer your time and skills to document their tremendous hard work and resilience. You will be a part of the effort to help each and every nonprofit on their path to a successful future. You, in turn, will walk away with a successful photo package to use in your portfolio to market yourself to other nonprofits clients and collaborators.

If you’ve never been on a workshop with us before, we recommend you visit the blog series, 5 Questions With…, to read interviews with our alumni here. You will come to learn about the #MomentaFamily and the incredible experiences of those who came before you.

We will focus our work with local NGOs and nonprofits of varying specialization and scale. From musical preservation organizations to community outreach to animal rescue, workshop attendees will be given the task of creating compelling visual or multimedia narrative packages in collaboration with their assigned nonprofit.

This will be a workshop to feed your creativity and your soul. Join us in August to be a force of change!

What To Expect

An unparalleled chance to use your photography skills to help local nonprofits thrive
Your own nonprofit partner to work with, based on your answers to a detailed pre-workshop student questionnaire
Momenta’s management of pre-workshop logistics to find your nonprofit assignments
You keep the copyright to all your photographs; each attendee donates a license to a collection of images to your local nonprofit partner so they can use them to promote the great work they are doing
Supportive direction and intensive instruction on photo workflow and file management
Option to participate in nighttime group discussions throughout the week
One hour per day of 1-on-1, private editing sessions with an instructor to help build your style and skills
Orientation lectures guide you on narrative storytelling, elements of a photo story, the importance of documentary photography, & much more

Join Us in El Paso

Register Here

Meet Your El Paso Faculty

Keep watching as we add more instructors!

Ibarionex Perello

Ibarionex Perello is a photographer, author and podcaster. He is the host and producer of The Candid Frame podcast, which for the past 13 years has featured conversations with some of the world’s best established and emerging photographers, including Joel Meyerowitz, Eli Reed, Mary Ellen Mark, Elliot Erwitt, and more.

Ibarionex is also the author or co-author of six books, including Chasing the Light: Improving Your Photography Using Available Light and Making Photographs: Developing a Personal Visual Workflow. His photographs and articles have appeared in numerous publications and websites including Digital Photo Pro, Outdoor Photographer, Rangefinder, Shutterbug, and Popular Photography. You can find his books here, the podcast app for Android or iOS, and his website here.

Jamie Rose

Jamie is co-Founder and COO of Momenta Group, LLC, which owns Momenta Workshops, Momenta Creative, and manages Wildfire Media, a nonprofit dedicated to documentary storytelling. Her early career was spent in the halls of power as a Press Corps photojournalist covering Capitol Hill and the White House, primarily as a long term contract for The New York Times.

Her passion for working with nonprofits led her to documentary coverage of humanitarian and health crisis in Africa, North and South America, and the Middle East…

Learn More about Jamie Rose

…Her clients included organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, The Calvert Foundation, The Global Fund, and Physicians for Human Rights among others.

In 2011, Jamie was awarded the United Nations’ Photographers Leadership Award. Her long term photo projects have won acclaim from the Alexia Foundation and The White House News Photographers’ Association for her portfolio of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) health care workers in wartime Northern Uganda.

Jamie is considered an expert in nonprofit communications and has been interviewed about the importance of storytelling in nonprofit communications by The Candid Frame, Photo District News (PDN), Around the Lens, Photography Talk, Creative Marketing & Business Podcast, and News Photographer Magazine among others. She has been an invited lecturer on communications for nonprofits at The Foundation Center, Colombia University, Georgetown University, University of Oregon, the Northern Short Course, as well as her alma maters.

Jamie holds degrees in Literature and Communications from American University and Visual Interactive Communications from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. She also runs the popular blog, Jamie’s List which promotes jobs and opportunities for creatives. She lives in the mountains of Oregon with her husband, co-founder of Momenta John Chris Anderson, and their rescue dog, Cody. Please don’t look up her website because it’s woefully out of date and will be redesigned hopefully someday before the next decade. Better yet, visit https://www.MomentaWorkshops.com or https://www.Wildfire-Media.org.

Are You Looking for the Fine Print?

Click through the tabs below for more info.

FAQs

1. I’m worried about the COVID-19 coronavirus. Should I wait to register? What if I don’t feel comfortable traveling by then?

We totally understand! The safety of our students and staff on the ground is paramount to us and we take your decision to travel and learn with us very seriously. With the situation on the ground changing so quickly, we want to ensure, when we all gather in person to support the nonprofits that desperately need us, it is the best environment for learning and creativity as well as safety.

As we prepare for all our workshops in 2021-2022, we will continue to follow city, state, and federal guidelines for safety protocols and working with our advisors to ensure every precaution possible is made. In addition the usual safety preparations and PPE we use on our programs, we will also be implementing stringent personal and group hygiene protocols during all workshops.

Since our programs are limited to small groups and are first come-first serve, we recommend putting your deposit in for the workshop program to hold your place. If you decide you’d like to transfer to another workshop in the future, we are waiving all transfer fees through January 2022 to allow for you to feel most comfortable with your decision to travel with us.

2. When should I arrive/depart? What’s the general schedule?
The workshop begins at 10 am MST on Tuesday and concludes at 9 p.m. on Friday night after the final slideshow party. A number of attendees choose to arrive a day or more early to get their bearings and possibly try to meet with their nonprofits to begin photographing before the workshop.