Cinematography of Today Conference & BIP Street Photography Program & Welcoming Guide
Join us in Lisbon for an intensive international programme exploring the creative dialogue between still photography and cinematography. Bringing together students and lecturers from Portugal, Germany, Belgium, and Spain, the Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) Still Photography for Cinematography Students offers a unique opportunity to develop visual storytelling skills through photography while engaging with a vibrant network of emerging filmmakers and image-makers.
The programme combines a series of online sessions with a one-week immersive experience in Lisbon. Participants will study the work of influential street photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Vivian Maier, Saul Leiter, Garry Winogrand, Martin Parr, and Alex Webb, examining how photographic observation, composition, light, and visual rhythm can inspire cinematographic practice.
During the intensive week, students will work in international teams while developing their own individual photographic projects inspired by Lisbon’s architecture, urban spaces, and multicultural social life. Over two days of shooting, participants will document the city through their personal artistic vision before moving into the laboratory phase, where participants are introduced to historical photographic alternative processes, including cyanotypes and anthotypes, allowing students to explore the origins of photography while experimenting with environmentally conscious and plant-based image-making practices. Through these workshops, participants gain a deeper understanding of photography as both a technical medium and a tactile, material art form.
The programme also includes masterclasses, workshops, and guest lectures by internationally recognised photographers, cinematographers, and researchers. Students will have the opportunity to participate in The Cinematography of Today Conference, engaging with contemporary discussions on cinematography, visual culture, analogue practices, sustainability, virtual production, artificial intelligence, and practice-based research.
The week concludes with a public exhibition of student work, transforming the city’s observations and encounters into a collective visual dialogue. This exhibition serves as both a celebration of the participants’ creative achievements and a platform for intercultural exchange through photography.
By combining theory, practice, experimentation, and exhibition, the BIP aims to strengthen students’ visual literacy, expand their creative approaches to image-making, and encourage new ways of thinking about the relationship between photography and cinema.
Together, we invite participants to explore photography as a creative tool for observation, artistic expression, and cultural dialogue, while discovering how still images can shape the language of cinema.
