David Rees and Jim Curley co-directed the Missouri Photo Workshop for 18 years. After watching hundreds of photographers evolve throughout the workshop, they’ve compiled advice to offer incoming participants.

1. Be a sponge.

David: Pay attention to faculty presentations, co-directors’ advice and explanation of the rules, fellow photographers’ conversations - all will have pertinent information and perhaps a fresh perspective. Forget that you know it all and listen. Absorb it, let it commingle with the knowledge you already possess.

Jim: When Cliff Edom was talking to Roy Stryker from the Farm Security Administration, he said if another name were given for this workshop, I think I would like to call it a “thinkshop”. That’s exactly what I hope it turns out to be. I hope we can promote and encourage alert photographic thinking.’ So from the very first it was about thinking, researching, figuring out what the possible pictures were so you’d be ready for them when they came.

2. Listen.

David: As you’re trying to find a story, introduce yourself to strangers; don’t be bashful. Explain who you are and what you’re doing here; then listen. And listen some more. Ask questions about them, and also about who they know in the community. Stories are there, all around you. To find them, it’s a matter of slowing down, tuning in. Forget your worries and concentrate on the people in the community.

Jim: I’m a shy guy. It’s hard for me to approach people. But this camera gives you a pretty good excuse. One of the things about this workshop is that it forces people to work outside of their comfort zone. You don‘t have a choice.

3. Embrace the process.

David: Don’t chimp; don’t delete; use only 400 frames for the whole week. The editing and thinking that should happen in your head starts now. Be deliberate and observe.

Jim: Trust the process. We’ve been working on it for 74 years. We’ve come close to getting it right and maybe one of these days we’ll get it all right, but we get it mostly right every year.

4. Take care of yourself.

David: Drink plenty of water; eat once in a while; try to get some sleep. Remember to go to the bathroom. Get up early to walk the town. Meet more people.

Jim: It’s about the thinking side of photography but it’s also about building relationships. It’s incredible to watch this community of photographers come together.

5. Don’t find just one story you’d like to do - find five.

David: Details are important. Access is important. The workshop is as much about research as it is about making pictures. Share your insecurity or worry, but also your enthusiasm for wanting to spend time with them, to tell their story, to give them voice. If you believe it, they will believe you.

Jim: Think about it as a learning experience. It’s not about the story you shoot this week, it should be about the story you’re going to be shooting next month or next year.

6. Reflect about why you’re here.

David: Is it to impress the faculty? Is it to put another notch in your photojournalism belt about where you’ve been, what you’ve done? Are you making pictures for your portfolio? Are you making pictures that you’ve made before, because they’re “safe” and you know how to do it? Just for this week, lose yourself in this community, in the people you are photographing. Make the pictures about them, about Sedalia.