Workshop Participants
Gillian Laub
Photographer, Cinematographer, Interviewer
Gillian Laub (b. 1975) is a photographer/artist, born in Chappaqua New York. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in comparative literature before studying photography at the International Center of Photography, New York. She was selected for the World Press Photo's Joop Swart Masterclass in 2003 and as the winner of Nikon's Storyteller Award for her work in the Middle East.
With the support of the Jerome Foundation, Laub's first monograph "Testimony" was published by Aperture in 2007 to critical acclaim. This body of work is comprised of portraits and testimonies from Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians all directly and indirectly affected by the complicated geopolitical context in which they live. In 2007, Laub was awarded Aperture's Emerging Artist Award. She contributes regularly to The New York Times Magazine among many other publications and commissions. Her work is widely exhibited and collected. She currently lives in New York and is represented by Bonni Benrubi Gallery.
Laub participated in the March 2010 MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop. She had the following to say about her experience:
SO, so glad I spent the week in this workshop! I think this was an incredible and invaluable experience. Intense in all the good ways. It forced me to flex new muscles and grow.
I am not satisfied with just the still photograph in many of the stories I do and have been longing to understand the other components to the story making process. It's beyond overwhelming, but I now see how it's doable and I actually feel comfortable (after this week) with video...which is huge for me.
Something just clicked over the week. Now all I am thinking about is multimedia and the possibilities of it in my work. I have so many ideas...so much in me. The week totally inspired this.
I also realized (like Brian said) that you CANNOT do this on your own. It was wonderful to see how you and Eric think and shape things. I loved seeing his passion and sensibility in the editing room.
The sense of community and camaraderie is wonderful.
I am really proud of the piece we all worked so hard on. But even more importantly, I think Ginny and her mother are going to love it and be moved, beyond. Just received the sweetest text from her. She wrote that she was so thankful that we thought she was worthy of doing a story on her. She said she and her mom actually missed us...what's nicer than that??!!
My favorite thing is entering into someone else's world and to experience life in their shoes...Ginny's is a complicated and complex one and glad we were able to do what we did in a very short amount of time. The images of her grandfather and that reality will haunt me for a while.
For so long I have been wanting to learn the tools and process behind the making of a multimedia piece. In one intensely packed week, with very little sleep, I truly believe I/we learned what it takes to bring storytelling to a new level. It was a wonderfully collaborative process that will forever inform my work. What an inspiring week that I urge others to experience.
Virginia Gandee's brilliant red hair and dozen tattoos belie the reality of this 22-year-old's life. Inside her family's Staten Island trailer her caregiving goes far beyond the love she has for her daughter.