KOUDELKA STARTER PACK TX 5063 PUSH +2 EI 1600
14  14A    15  15A

I have a workshop for you.

For only $10,000 I give you 20 rolls of film, a sleeping bag, and a few Clif bars.

You provide the motivation. I provide the Koudelka starter pack.

Available only via private text invitation.

The starter pack

Everything you need to photograph the edge of Europe for thirty days, except most of the things you need.

  1. 20

    Rolls of Tri-X

    Rate them at 1600. Develop them later. Possibly much later. The grain is the point and the point is the grain.

  2. 1

    Sleeping bag

    Previously slept in. This is your accommodation, your studio, and on cold nights your darkroom changing bag.

  3. A few

    Clif bars

    The exact number is part of the curriculum. Flavor is assigned, not chosen.

  4. 0

    Itineraries

    You will be told where we are going once we have already left. You will be told where we went when you see the contact sheets.

  5. 0

    Leather jackets

    Not included. You either already have the jacket or this workshop is not for you yet.

Total$10,000

The Clif bars are most of it.

The curriculum, as a contact sheet

Thirty days, twelve frames. Please do not ask which frame is which day. Neither of us will know.

TX 5063
1  1A
Day 1. Leave.
PUSH +2
2  2A
Day 2. Do not tell anyone where you are.
TX 5063
3  3A
Day 3. Sleep wherever it gets dark.
EI 1600
4  4A
Wide angle. Get closer. Closer than that.
TX 5063
5  5A
Horizon studies. Tilt it four degrees, on purpose.
PUSH +2
6  6A
Push the film two stops. Push yourself one.
TX 5063
7  7A
Photographing a horse from very far away.
EI 1600
8  8A
Group critique: is this a horse.
TX 5063
9  9A
Three stops under. Kept anyway.
PUSH +2
10  10A
Lens cap. Everyone does it once.
TX 5063
11  11A
the keeper There is one.
EI 1600
12  12A
Day 30. Return. Say nothing about the Clif bars.

See a past participant’s contact sheets. All twenty rolls.

Processing notes

Film
Tri-X, box speed 400
Exposure index
1600, always, including indoors, including at noon
Developer
Whatever the farmhouse had
Time
Until the grain looks like gravel
Agitation
Constant. Mostly emotional.
Expected result
Blacks with no detail. Whites with no detail. Meaning in the middle, if any.

Questions you will not be allowed to ask on the trip

Will I become Josef Koudelka?
No. That position is filled. He is still Koudelka.
Where do we sleep?
Outside, mostly. Refer to item two of the starter pack.
Can I bring a digital camera?
You can bring it. It stays in the car. There is no car.
What is the refund policy?
The Clif bars have been eaten.
Is there a portfolio review?
On day thirty you will hand me twenty rolls. I will hold them up to the sky, one at a time, and nod at two.

Don’t text me. I’ll text you.

Enrollment is by private text invitation only. There is no form. There will never be a form. A number you do not recognize will send you one frame with no caption. Reply with one frame of your own.