- When
- Sunday 23 August
- Time
- 7:00 to lunchtime
- Length
- A morning
In Search of Beauty is a photography workshop about learning to see with more patience, presence, and trust. It is a space to slow down, notice the quiet beauty in details, light, and spontaneous moments, and reconnect with photography as a more intuitive creative practice.
In Search of Beauty is a contemplative photography workshop inspired by the belief that photography begins long before the shutter is pressed. It is a space for training the eye, cultivating patience, and learning how to notice beauty in its many forms: in small details, fleeting gestures, subtle light, textures, atmospheres, and spontaneous moments that often go unseen.
This workshop is not a conventional technical photography course. While the camera is present as a tool, the deeper focus is on seeing: how to become more attentive, more open, and more confident in your own creative way of looking at the world. Through guided observation and creative exercises, participants are invited to slow down, trust their instincts, and develop a more appreciative relationship with the visual language around them.
At its core, this workshop is about confidence, presence, and creative freedom. It encourages participants to move beyond fear, hesitation, and self-doubt, and to explore how unexpected moments, mistakes, and spontaneity can be transformed into meaningful images. In this process, photography becomes not only a craft, but also a practice of self-trust: a way of stepping more fully into one's own artistic voice.
In Search of Beauty welcomes both aspiring photographers and experienced creatives who wish to reconnect with photography in a more reflective, intuitive, and expansive way. It is an invitation to see more deeply, create more freely, and discover how beauty can emerge through attention, openness, and the courage to look differently.
Meet the artist
Igor Świeczak
Photographer and creative director exploring beauty through intuition, atmosphere, and visual poetry.
Igor Swieczak is a photographer and creative director drawn to the quiet tension between instinct and form. His work moves through light, gesture, and atmosphere, seeking moments where beauty feels less constructed and more revealed. With a refined yet spontaneous approach, he creates imagery that lingers in the space between observation and emotion.
For me, photography has always been about more than technique: it is about feeling, attention, and the courage to look differently.
The practical part
What is included
- Watching the sunrise together to begin the morning
- The full guided photography workshop
- Access to the swimming pool
- A relaxed, social morning with the other participants
- A ticket to the Open House exhibition on 27 August
The Living Gallery
What you make here joins the Living Gallery: it stays with the Art Space Residency through the programme, on show until the Open House exhibition on 27 August.
What to bring
- A working digital or film camera, with a fully charged battery. No particular equipment is needed, and a mobile phone is perfectly suitable
- One or more SD cards, with enough free space for the session
- Your favourite notebook and something to write with
- Everything ready before you arrive, so we can begin with the morning light without delay
- Swimwear and a towel, if you would like to use the swimming pool
Limited spots
Questions
Good to know
Who is this for?
For anyone who wishes to see more beauty in the world, and to carry that way of seeing into their photographs and everyday life.
You may be at the beginning of your photographic journey, or you may have been making images for years. This workshop is a space to become more attentive: to notice what is often overlooked, to stay longer with a moment, and to find beauty not only in what is obvious, but also in what is quiet, imperfect, unfamiliar, or easily passed by.
For those new to photography, it offers a foundation of curiosity and self-trust. For more experienced photographers, it is an invitation to move beyond habit: to look deeper, challenge familiar ways of working, and approach each image with renewed intention.
Do I need photography experience?
No.
Photography is our way in, but seeing is where we begin. You do not need to know the right settings, own a professional camera, or arrive with a portfolio. You only need curiosity and a willingness to look at the world with more patience.
What should I bring?
Bring a camera, a film camera, or simply your phone. Make sure it is charged and that you have enough space to make photographs.
Bring a notebook too, if you enjoy writing or collecting thoughts. Most of all, bring yourself with a little room to wander, observe, and be surprised.
Do I need technical knowledge?
No technical knowledge is required.
This workshop is not about mastering equipment or chasing technical perfection. We will focus on attention, instinct, atmosphere, and the confidence to follow what draws your eye. The aim is to make photographs with greater intention, not simply to make more photographs.
What will we do together?
We will begin in the morning light.
Through a series of guided exercises, you will photograph independently, follow small prompts, and make space for what appears along the way. We will return together to reflect, share selected images, and speak about what was noticed, both in the photographs and beyond them.
What kind of photographs should I make?
There is no expected result.
You may be drawn to light, shadows, people, objects, colours, texture, silence, or movement. You may find beauty in something ordinary, unexpected, or even imperfect. The workshop is an invitation to follow that pull rather than force an image into being.
What if the weather changes?
Then we work with what is there.
Cloud, rain, wind, and changing light are not interruptions. They can become part of the experience, another way of noticing the world as it is, rather than as we expected it to be.
Will I need to show my photographs?
Sharing is invited, never forced.
There will be time to present selected images and reflect with the group, but you can participate in the way that feels right for you. This is not a space for comparison or judgement; it is a space for exchange, curiosity, and learning through different ways of seeing.
What will I leave with?
You will leave with photographs, but also with new ways of looking.
A greater curiosity for what surrounds you. Small tools to help you slow down, notice more, and find beauty beyond what is immediate or obvious, tools you can return to long after the workshop, in photography and in everyday life.
Your images may become more intentional, personal, and confident. You may begin to wait longer, return to a place, try another angle, or stay with a feeling until a photograph becomes something closer to what you truly saw.
The aim is not to tell you what beauty should look like. It is to help you recognise it more freely, and trust your own response to it.
The residency has closed
This day has been and gone
The August residency is over and nothing here is for sale any more. The page stays up as a record of the day. We are now bringing our creative services, living galleries and art residencies to hotels and guest houses — if that is you, or you would simply like to know what comes next, write to us.
We answer every message personally.