Fotosofia Essay

I started project 'Fotosofia' in 1996 with the essay 'Fotosofia' written with the objective to offer rational help in the process of creating and perceiving photographs. In this essay, I explore photography as a means of communication through basic questions, for example:

Why does the media exist?
What is the function of an art photographer?
How faithfully does photography convey the intended information?
Is there an objective way to determine whether a photograph is artistic?
How to use art photography?
Should art photography's audience decipher the author's message?

Fotosofia photo seminar

As a practical realization of the essay's ideas, in 2006 I founded a seven-day photo seminar for advanced photography, carrying the essay's name. Every year I choose 15 seminarists by contest, and those successful can attend the seminar at no cost. The only conditions to apply are to be at least 18 years of age and, for the moment, to be able to communicate in Croatian. Therefore, Fotosofia seminarists come from all of the region, and also Croatian speaking people from other parts of the world.

The seminar is very intense - seminarists are realizing 8-10 different themes, editing their photos on their own. The training stimulates creativity in the fields of fine arts, photo essay, fashion, celebrity portrait and advertising photography. It offers advancement in education, creativity and self-promotion (seminarists are giving statements and publishing their works in mainstream media). Through networking it enriches seminarist's connections with fellow photographers, fashion professionals, media people, celebrities and sponsors. The main goal of the seminar is to find, advance and expose photo talents - providing them with an opportunity to devote themselves to photography on a higher level. Some of the previous seminarists have taken this opportunity and became famous photographers. The others became students of photography-oriented universities, have begun to work as photo professionals, win prestigious awards...

I like to say that the last day of the seminar is not the conclusion, but the beginning of Fotosofia for a seminarist. The new generation of seminarists is instantly connected with all previous seminarists, and is awarded a unique opportunity to join the previous seminarists in Fotosofia activities throughout the year (joint shootings, meetings, assisting and requesting assistance from the others, etc).

For a greater understanding of the experience of attending this seminar, I encourage you to explore the media impressions by simply writing 'Fotosofia Hoyka' in your browser.