Justin Mott: Visual Story Telling Dec 4, 2011

Justin Mott is an extraordinary photography and his photo essay work has won him international acclaim.  Thanks to a program sponsored by the US Embassy, Kuala Lumpur, Justin was in KL for a week in early December 2011.  On December 4th, Hallway Events hosted a Visual Story Telling session with Justin for about 60 photographers at Loyar Burok in Bangsar Utama.  Several participants offered their portfolios up for review.  Justin discussed his experience with story telling and showed us some of his award-winning photo essays.  He talked about the elements of a good story, how important it is to earn space with your subject and the value of working really hard to get it right.

Justin was fresh from the Angkor Photo Festival where he was an “advisor” to several young Asian photographers who had been chosen to participate in a week long workshop.  Fate would have it that one of Justin’s students was Adli Ghazali, a Malaysian, and he took second prize at the festival!  Hallway Events arranged for Adli to show his photo essay to our group and Justin discussed the process that Adli had gone through to create his story and what made the essay strong.  Thanks to Adli for sharing his success with us.  And Congratulations as well!!

Justin also reviewed the portfolios of several amateur photographers who had bravely submitted their work for our scrutiny.  Justin’s comments were constructively critical and useful to all of us.  Quite a few photographers left the program with an itchy finger and a determination to think more before shooting!

Following our event on Dec 4th, Justin was involved in a US Embassy-sponsored program for 7 select photographers for a week-long workshop on developing a photo essay.  This was organized by Pang at Central Market Annex.  What a great experience for these young photographers to be mentored by the enthusiastic and talented Justin Mott!

Thanks to all the participants.  Let’s keep sharing photos!