Lancashire Photography Festival, UK, is seeking people to take part in a photography project.

The project will see participants produce a short photo story, developed through online workshops; the work will be exhibited outdoors in Preston as part of Lancashire Photography Festival 2021. The festival is provisionally planned for Spring 2021.

The workshops will be held online because of lockdown – but are free and open to anyone.

The workshops will focus on basic photography techniques and how to tell a story in a series of images. You will produce a set of images which will be viewed as a set. These images will be in the style of either photojournalism or documentary photography – both genres are closely linked. The workshops will go into detail on both styles of photography and how to produce these types of images. All images must have been taken in 2021 as part of the project.

During lockdown, photographic stories are harder to create. But photography is able to be carried out during lockdown conditions, either at a safe social distance (because you can photograph things/people from a distance) or images can be taken within home environments. Some of the best photojournalism and documentary projects over the past 12 months have shown life in lockdown through creative imagery. These workshops will show you how to apply photojournalistic techniques to your own images.

Participants will be expected to photograph a story in approximately six images, and can expect some or all of the images to be exhibited in an outdoor or outward facing location – such as a wall or shop window in Preston.

There is no cost to take part in this project. Workshops are free to attend. Printing costs of images will be paid for by Lancashire Photography Festival. For anyone wishing to take part but who is unable to join online workshops, communication will take place via printed worksheets delivered in the post.

Workshops will be held on weekday evenings (dates to be decided) beginning in February 2021. There will be approximately three workshops. Support materials will be available for those unable to attend a meeting.

The festival is being held in Preston, Lancashire in the north of England. People taking part in the project DO NOT have to be from the area – or even the UK – to take part in the project. Images taken for the project DO NOT have to be taken in Preston or Lancashire.

There's a simple application process here; deadline 31 Jan 2021.

Photo: Garry Cook