Courses & Workshops

Skill-building sessions with industry experts

About Soodoo Photography Workshops

These workshops represent a unique opportunity to develop your photographic practice in the inspiring setting of Soodoo and its surroundings. Each course has been carefully designed to provide an immersive learning experience that combines technical skill development with creative exploration.

The workshops take place in various locations including the Soodoo Darkroom & Field Studios, Soodoo Indoor Studio, Outdoor Workshop Table + Soodoo Lab, and on-location in Sudugandapalli and surrounding areas.

Whether you’re interested in traditional darkroom techniques, large format photography, early photographic processes, portrait photography, fashion photography, or visual storytelling, these workshops offer a chance to deepen your practice under expert guidance in a supportive environment.

A limited series of intensive workshops for 2025-26. Each one is place-responsive, visually rigorous, and built to challenge convention

Light, Grain, Silence: A 3-Day Black & White Darkroom Intensive

This is more than analog technique. It’s a slow meditation on image-making. Participants will shoot, develop, and print in black and white, building a dialogue between mechanical precision and tactile instinct.

Stillness in Form: A One-Day Introduction to Large Format & Object Photography

A single day to slow down and see. Using a 4×5 large format camera: we’ll study still life as metaphor, drawing inspiration from agricultural tools, florals, and vernacular objects found across Soodoo.

Salt, Sun & Soil: The Alchemy of Early Photography

Explore the salt print. One of photography’s oldest processes using local light and hand prepared paper. This workshop blurs art and chemistry with imagery drawn from the land itself.

Portraits of Place: A 2-Day Intensive in Human Centred Image-Making

Portraits not just of people but of place. This course is about negotiating presence, vulnerability and intention when photographing others. Participants will engage with local subjects in studio and natural environments.

Line, Movement, Fabric: A 3-Day Fashion Photography Intensive in Rural Light

This is fashion stripped of gloss, anchored in context. With a styled team and rural backdrops, you’ll explore fashion photography not as commercial production but as visual language rooted in material, gesture, and design.

Between Image and Meaning: A 3-Day Visual Storytelling Intensive

For photographers seeking depth: this course explores how images become essays, how sequences form rhythm, and how everyday moments can evolve into powerful narratives. Ideal for documentary and long form practitioners.

Program types

Workshops

Hands-on learning experiences covering specific techniques, tools, and approaches to photography.

Masterclasses

In-depth sessions with renowned photographers sharing their expertise and creative processes.

1:1 Sessions

Personalised mentorship sessions tailored to your specific needs and artistic goals.

Workshop Schedule Overview

Ready to learn?

join our community of learners and take your photography skills to the next level with expert guidance and hands-on practice.

Light, Grain, Silence: A 3-Day Black & White Darkroom Intensive

What You’ll Explore

  • Processing 35mm/120 film with local water conditions
  • Darkroom printing techniques, from exposure to toning
  • Morning light shoots in Hosur’s floricultural belt
  • Reading your negatives: What does light reveal?

Why This Course:

Because sometimes, stripping photography down to its essence- silver, chemistry, grain helps us find a new language.

Stillness in Form: A One-Day Introduction to Large Format & Object Photography

Camera Operation

How to operate a large format field camera

Technical Movements

Tilt, shift, focus plane

Lighting Techniques

Studio lighting for storytelling in objects

Technical Movements

Photographing textures of utility and ritual

Why This Course:

Because objects, when carefully framed, speak volumes about a place-and the hands that shape it.

Salt, Sun & Soil: The Alchemy of Early Photography

What You’ll Create:

  • Salted & sensitised paper using digital negatives
  • UV-exposed prints in natural light
  • One-of-a-kind, matte-surfaced monochromes

Why This Course:

Because the past has process wisdom and the soil still has stories to reveal when paired with silver and sun.

Portraits of Place: A 2-Day Intensive in Human Centred Image-Making

You'll Work On:

Lighting Approaches

Natural vs. constructed portrait lighting

Subject Interaction

Candid vs. directed approaches

Connection Building

Building rapport with rural subjects

Contextual Framing

Layering context into each frame

Why This Course:

Because every portrait carries the climate, labor, and story of the landscape it belongs to.

Line, Movement, Fabric: A 3-Day Fashion Photography Intensive in Rural Light

Line, Movement, Fabric

A 3-Day Fashion Photography Intensive in Rural Light

Model Direction

Directing models for narrative impact

Fabric & Movement

Movement, drape, and body across sunlight and shadow

Lighting Integration

Studio vs. environmental lighting integration

Why This Course:

Because Hosur’s bloom, its fields, and its air offer more than a backdrop. They become the wardrobe’s silent collaborator.

Between Image and Meaning: A 3-Day Visual Storytelling Intensive

Key Explorations:

  • How to find stories in marketplaces, border zones, daily rituals
  • Sequencing: building a beginning, middle, and silence
  • Editorial critique and collaborative editing
  • Preparing work for zines, grants, or exhibitions

Why This Course:

Because a single image can linger but a well-told visual story can move.