Tried to photograph the fog, but I mist

This workshop will explore how to bring humour, satire and irony into photo-based artistic practices. Although art and humour are subjective, we will examine this theme by discussing artists, artistic movements and exercises that are cleverer than a one-liner. This workshop will consider failure as part of the artistic process by looking at images from the everyday uncanny to Dada and Surrealism. Participants will bring funny photographs they have taken and a prop to use in the studio for staged situations and scenarios—recreating images taken from “how to” manuals from the '60s and '70s like How to Make Good Pictures and Guide to Winning Photo Contests. This workshop aims to investigate tropes and stereotypes associated with the conventions of photography and to subvert these ideals.

Instructor Bio: Kotama Bouabane (b.1980, Pakse, Laos) is a photo-based artist and educator living and working in Tkranto/Toronto, Canada. He has an MFA in Studio Arts, Photography from Concordia University, Montreal and a AOCAD from OCADU. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at galleries including Centre A (Vancouver), The New Gallery (Calgary) and VU Photo (Quebec City). He has received many awards and grants from the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council & the Canada Council for the Arts.

Image caption: Cut it out (detail), Kotama Bouabane, Digital Archive Print, 2002, 8.5”x11”