Portraiture and the gaze / 2023
Workshop with Marisol Mendez

Portraiture and the gaze was a workshop on critically reading images, fostering an empathetic gaze, and reflecting on portraiture, held by Marisol Mendez at PhMuseum Lab in Bologna on 22 September 2023.

  • Where PhMuseum Lab, Via Paolo Fabbri 10/2a, Bologna
  • When 22 Sept 2023
  • Language English/Italian
  • Positions 14 Participants + 1 Scholarship
  • Contacts If you have any questions you can reach us at edu@phmuseum.com

The Workshop

What does capturing a person’s essence entail? How can a photographer establish a sense of trust and intimacy with their subjects?

How it works

  • 22 Sept 2023 / €120

    Designed for photographers and artists seeking to reflect on gaze and its significance within photography, this workshop with photographer Marisol Mendez will explore the nuanced implications of portrait creation. It will critically reassess and reshape the way we approach the representation of others, and the way we position ourselves when portraying someone.

    Starting from visual and theoretical references fostering a deeper understanding of the medium, participants will exercise their critical reading of images, growing towards a more empathic gaze. Working collaboratively, they will be equipped with both technical and expressive resources to produce portraits, and investigate their narrative possibilities.

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Head professor

Marisol Mendez

Marisol Mendez is a photographer and researcher from Cochabamba, Bolivia. She uses her camera to study the tension between truth and fiction, the tight relationship between what a photograph creates and the (sur)real it comes from. Driven by research-led and self-initiated projects, she seeks to deconstruct traditional modes of representation and weave nuanced narratives with multiple layers of meaning. At the heart of her artistic pursuit lies the exploration of humankind. Marisol is moved by the desire to build genuine connections with the people on the other side of the lens. Her objective is to encapsulate the intimacy of shared experiences, the tenderness or friction of mutual recognition.  With a democratic approach to image-making, she utilizes a diverse array of visual languages to tell stories that traverse the boundaries between individual experience, collective memory, and imagination. Rooted in the landscapes and folklore of her culture, her work oscillates between candid and staged, naturalistic and mythical. Ultimately, she wants to challenge preconceptions, spark dialogue, and prompt viewers to reconsider their perspectives on reality and representation.

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