Photography Festival in Barcelona: Behind the Scenes
Introducing Cristina Ruiz — one of Briefy’s incredible photographers we have had the pleasure of working with in Barcelona.
We are always discovering awesome things our photographers do when they’re not working on projects with us, and sometimes it’s pretty darn impressive!
Cristina helps to organize & run an inspiring photography festival in Barcelona with an easy-going vibe. And we just had to spread the word!
It all started 6 years ago as a small gathering of 25 crazy photographers in a tiny rural village (population of 300) of Logroño, called Corera.
Now The Rural Workshop has hundreds of participants from all over the world who exchange ideas, live together during the 4 days and support one another.
The original idea began as all good things do: with the vision of a possibly crazy person, in that case Roberto Ramos (a Barcelona based photographer).
At that time workshops were not very popular in Spain. Well, there were events or meetings but in a more traditional way. He thought — why not create a meeting, an informal meeting, with no schedule or rules to follow; just a bunch of photographers living under the same roof for 3–4 days?
Everyone there (40 people) had an amazing experience: living together, eating together, sharing tips, stories…it was like a summer camp for kids, but for adults and in February!
I was an attendee of that first meeting and since then I’ve be involved in the project.
Next year Roberto needed someone who spoke a bit of English, so he told me — hey, why don’t you come over again and help me with the organization of Rural? And I said sure, I’m in! So for the first 4 years we held the event in that tiny village called Corera. We had the support of the mayor and all the inhabitants, most of them more than 65 years old.
It was just as much about the experience we had while we were there as the community we became once it was over. So, it started to become popular on Facebook thanks to the images shared by participants, and of course, word of mouth — the most powerful form of marketing.
After 5 years, The Rural’17 will take place in a camping & bungalow park in Santa Susanna, 50 kms away from Barcelona. Speakers and attendees stay in very nice shared bungalows, with many facilities. The camp-ground is right by the sea, in a unique location.
TRW has the same spirit as it had at the beginning, a very easy going festival with a nice community vibe. It’s not only a festival about photography.
We also want to expand creativity and bring artists from other disciplines who work with images and tell stories (fashion, music, graphic design, film, cinematography…).
This event has been created by and designed for photographers.
Aspiring photographers, seasonal professionals and everyone in between. Leave egos behind and just living this experience.
Everyone is welcome but we do recommend to have a good knowledge and understanding of what ever camera equipment you are working with, as well a basic grounding in photography. That’s enough to get the most of the event.
As you can imagine — to organize this type of event with more than 300 people involved is quite an adventure. As soon as we finish, we’re thinking about next year’s edition, how to improve workshops and activities and new crazy ideas.
We literally spend every single euro from selling tickets or by sponsors. The Rural is not a money-maker for me and Roberto. It’s more a passion project. We’re “the parents” of that community, of the Rurals, as we like to call ourselves. We spend a lot of our free time thinking on it and planning. We both do weddings, so it’s quite stressful to have so many things in mind. But at the same time it’s an extra encouragement to keep doing things.
We’ve a very active private Facebook group for ex-participants and new faces, so people can get in touch before and after the Rural days. They plan to travel together to the location, ask each other for advice about what to bring, if someone can’t attend, that person can sell the ticket through our group… We also seek feedback from them and evaluate this to support our own growth.
We search for the best speakers to attend, not necessarily famous speakers. Sometimes we bring well known photographers and other times we discover new fresh talents via instagram. I’m in charged of getting in touch with them, explaining the idea and reaching an agreement to have them involved in the event.
We have an incredible line-up of photographers and big names in other creative fields (film, music videos, fashion..).
During the 4 days each speaker will teach 2 seminars and all attendees will participate in 4 workshops of 90 minutes each. Group activities are planned to stimulate your mind and stretch your imagination. There’s also an epic party, of course.
Our plans for the future: we are planting seeds along the way and, of course, we want to become the most important creative festival in Europe! ;)
No, seriously, we’d love to grow in number of participants, reach more people from more countries and keep that honest and humble community spirit that we began with 6 years ago.
We want to provide our Rurals with relevant learning experiences and motivate them to follow their passion and dreams.
I’m in love with this project and I’m very proud to be part of it, even though it’s a hard work and as I said it’s not a money-maker.
But once you’re there seeing everyone happy, living together, laughing, learning, walking with their cameras, drinking beer in the cabins and enjoying the experience…that’s priceless and it’s worth every minute spent on it.
Check here 2017 line-up: http://www.theruralworkshop.com/speakers-2017
TRW’17 ticket investment is 726€ and it includes:
- Shared accommodation in cabins for 4–5 people, and meals for 4 nights. We want everyone to mingle and get to know each other,
- Access to the full programme of workshops and events, including the epic party and outdoor activities.
Check the 2016 edition video:
Another extra f***crazy video:
Find us on our Facebook fan page & our Instagram
